Malice
by TheDeadTellTales
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto is a defense attorney. Sabaku Gaara is a convicted murderer. Years after the conviction, the case is re-opened and Naruto gets the chance to work as his lawyer. But what happens when he gets too involved with the client in question? GaaNaru / NaruGaa
1. Limits of Sanity

**The story has been rated M, because I'm not sure how graphic the future content will be (detailed violence, sexual content, blah blah). I'm trying to make this story's environment a mix of Naruto world and reality. For example, the Land of Wind doesn't actually exist, but Fuchu Prison is an actual high security correctional center in Japan. You'll see when you read. This will be slowly developing, eventual GaaNaru/NaruGaa. If any of the content isn't your cup of tea, feel free to stop reading as soon as that conclusion hits you and save any personal opinions on your visions of the world. Reasoned criticism on the other hand is welcomed. Enjoy! ;)**

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><p>The wind around here, it had a scent to it. A slight scent of iron. A scent of blood. If madness had a smell to it, it would be this exactly. Chilling calmness, yet with a hint of danger in the mix.<p>

A young man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The cold air filled his lungs, giving the illusion of space and freedom. But he knew better. Opening his eyes he let the air slip through his lips. He looked around. This place knew no freedom. This ground knew no peace. These walls knew no happiness. This place was the definition of sad. Not sadness, just plain, pitiful sad. The young male couldn't stop his eyes narrowing in disgust as he scanned around the yard. The people around him were just as dark and soaked in blood as the walls surrounding him. Naturally the visible red of blood had been washed away, but that didn't mean it wasn't visible to him. Just like these walls will never stop screaming a silent wail telling the things they've seen, these men inside the walls will never be able to wipe away the scenes of death in their eyes. No matter how careful they were, no matter how well they played out their act, the eyes would always give away. You see, madness was never something for the mankind to control, but the other way around. Hence the reason for the imprint it marks its victims with. He knew, because he possessed those very same eyes. He had the eyes, but he wasn't insane. No, he couldn't be, a madman would not be aware of the hollowness behind his eyes, giving it all away. He had the eyes, but wasn't mad. He was unsure of what it meant. Was he on his way to madness? He didn't know, nor would he care until it became a problem.

The man let out a grunt and turned his head towards an opening in the wall beside him. The opening too was blocked, with thick iron bars, but it did let through the view behind the concrete walls. It wasn't much; a dry field, trees preparing for the winter and a tightly shut gate. He walked closer to the opening. Slowly he reached a hand out to touch one of the thick iron bars separating him and the free world. It was cold to the touch. Something familiar gently hit his face.

Wind. Wind from the other side. It was so different, so…free. So free of blood.

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><p>A blonde man let out a long breath of relief as he put down his pen and shut down the expensive laptop in front of him. He couldn't resist the need to give up the good posture and sink down in his chair. He let out a slight yawn and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long day. A rough day, too. He glanced at the file on the desk in front of him. He was a defense attorney, specialized in homicide cases. He liked his job, he liked the challenge it offered him. But some days, some cases…sometimes it was hard. Sometimes it was hard to stand by a person who had no hope of winning the case, who without a doubt had committed the crime in question. But it was never too hard. That's what made him so good at his job. He had the talent of shutting down his emotions when necessary. Even today, while working on the case that had drained his energy to the lowest. He might've had the talent of shutting his emotions down, but from time to time it was a struggle to keep them low. Today had been one of those times.<p>

The man glanced at the file once more before standing up, grabbing the file and dropping it in a drawer. The blonde couldn't help but feel a slight stab of hatred towards his most recent client. Cases of murdered children, those were his only weakness and today it had taken a considerable amount of strength to keep it from impacting him.

He heard a cough behind him.

"Yo, Naruto. Got a minute?" a man dressed in a sharp suit asked.

Upon hearing his name, Naruto turned around to look at the man in question. He sighed and walked lazily back to his chair.

"Depends. Is it urgent or are you just trying to piss on my plans of going home?" Naruto answered slightly annoyed.

The man walked over to his desk with a slight smirk on his face.

"You know it's not like me to be troublesome, so yeah, this is urgent," was the answer.

Naruto took a look at the man in front of him. Nara Shikamaru, a brilliant human rights attorney plus a genius. He rarely made mistakes, rarely lost cases. He was like Naruto; loved his job for the intellectual challenges it offered him. They'd gone to school together, challenging each other to a silent race to be the top of their classes. He had motivated Naruto to become the man he was today. Aside of being his respected colleague, he was a close friend. Had been for several years.

Naruto lowered his gaze to the file in the other man's hand. He sighed.

"Shit, seriously? Are you sure this can't wait until tomorrow?" Naruto asked with pleading eyes.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, this was emphasized as urgent. Someone requested specifically you and said that they need an answer by tomorrow," the man said with a stern look in his eyes.

Naruto's tired eyes opened wider upon hearing the request.

"What's the urgency?" Naruto questioned.

Shikamaru's shrugged as he turned around, leaving the file on his desk.

"Dunno. Read the file and find out," the man said and walked out the door.

Naruto felt like glaring at the man's turned back, but he couldn't blame Shikamaru for the shitty timing. There was no choice then, eh?

With a huff he opened the file. It was a report on a re-opening of an old case. Naruto went straight to the description of the said case. '_Defendant accused of first degree murders of seven people'_. Naruto couldn't help but to let out a sigh. This wasn't going to be an easy one. With that thought he let himself go through the details.

'_Murders committed in July of 2007, the suspect taken into custody two months later, sentenced to life imprisonment in November of 2007. In August of 2014, by the request of the victims' families, the prosecution filed a complaint about the sentence and is now demanding a capital punishment, death sentence. But with the case being re-opened, new evidence has come to light and is now in favor of the defendant. This has made the defendant optimistic and now wishes for a new layer, not being pleased with the work of the former ._'

Naruto found this mildly interesting. The defendant obviously held hopes for being released. Actually, Naruto knew about this particular case. It had been brought up as a fresh example of a first degree murder case in law school. But he wasn't particularly familiar with it. He'd never seen a picture of the killer nor did he remember his name, but the short explanation of the case back in school did teach him that it had been a disturbing one. He didn't know the full story, but he did know who to contact about it. That is, if he found the case interesting enough after going through the details.

Naruto moved his attention back to the text in front of him. The vague description wasn't really enough information to go on. He turned the page to see the details. Something turned in his stomach as he was introduced to the pictures of the crime scene. Although the pictures were just photocopies, they were very detailed. The scene was horrific. He couldn't remember seeing this much blood in a single crime scene photo, ever. The picture was taken of a room with once white walls. Blood had covered most of the surfaces around the room and it had literally pooled the floor. There were body parts and more or less intact human beings lying on the blood soaked hardwood floor. Some of the victims had been cut to so many pieces, there wasn't really much left to identify them as once being living people. Others hadn't had anything severed, but had suffered so many bullet wounds to the head that their faces weren't recognizable anymore. One didn't have a face at all, like it had been cut off. Naruto felt a burning in his throat as the lunch he'd eaten tried to escape. He took a deep breath to calm down. He wasn't sensitive to these things, but he also hadn't been expecting _this._ This crime was committed with such _hate._ The rage was so apparent. The first thought that came to Naruto was that this crime hadn't been done for pleasure. It was planned, yes, and it was sadistically enjoyed, but it wasn't done as a perverse pleasure. The hate wasn't consistent with it being a perversion. But it also wasn't a spontaneous hate crime either, it had been planned. Sure there had been multiple serial killers fulfilling their perversions using people that their sick hate towards the world culminated in, but this attack had been so personal. And the differences between the victims were so obvious that it would've been unlikely for a serial killer to have such a wide range of preferences within victims.

Naruto took a look at report attached to the pictures.

'_Weapons used in the crime have been identified as: a Makita chainsaw, two kinds of army knives, an AA-12 shotgun and a Colt .45. Two of the victims had also suffered fatal wounds that were proven to be a result of using an ax in the attack. The ax was not found on the scene nor was it in the possession of the suspect. A partial fingerprint was discovered on the AA-12 shotgun, but the investigators failed to find any DNA on the weapons, victims or the crime scene in general. The partial fingerprint was proven to be a match with the suspects'.'_

There were pictures of the weapons used in the attack. Apart from the AA-12 shotgun, all of them appeared to be brand new. Not a scratch on any of them, even after the blood bath. Naruto wondered if this was somehow relevant. It appeared that all other equipment had been acquired specifically for this attack. The killer might've used the shotgun for sentimental reasons. It seemed apparent that the gun held some personal value to the killer; it would've explained why he'd use a traceable weapon. The used gun raised a high risk of getting tracked down. On further inspection Naruto learned that the shotgun had been registered to the suspect. So why had it been left behind? Did something go wrong with their plan that made them flee before everything was finished?

Naruto turned another page. There was a picture of a man. Naruto felt his breathing stop for just a second. A man with a ghostly pale face and piercing blue eyes stared at him from the picture. His eyes were so hollow that Naruto questioned if this was a picture of a living man. His doubt faded when he understood this was the suspect's mug shot. The hair on Naruto's back stood up as he stared at the photo. The man's face lacked all expression aside from what seemed to be an almost unnoticeable smirk. Naruto wasn't so sure anymore about this guy not being a homicidal maniac. This guy looked completely insane. That wasn't the only unusual thing about his features. He was pale as snow, had blood red hair and a tattoo on his forehead. Or was it a scar? A kanji for '_love'. _Naruto didn't know how to feel about the irony of it. It took Naruto a while to discover that this man had no eyebrows. That particular feature made the man's piercing blue eyes stand out even more. A dark shade around them only emphasized the cold stare. Still, somehow, this man was…handsome. Naruto knew that wasn't unusual for people with killer intent. It seemed that good looks came with the lack of something else. In this case, it seemed to be sanity. Such a shame it was for all the women in the world, to have good looks wasted on men like him.

Of course Naruto hadn't made any final conclusions about the man just yet; he'd only gone through a fraction of the data. He turned the page again and came upon a name; Sabaku Gaara. Naruto felt a faint recognition of the name.

"Gaara, huh?"Naruto voiced.

Naruto eyed the rest of the information.

'_Name: Sabaku Gaara_

_Born: January 19, 1986_

_Age: 28_

_Sex: Male_

_Background:_

_The early childhood of the defendant, according to himself, was a fairly normal one. The effort to gather more details was a failure due to the defendant resisting cooperation on the subject. From official records it has been successfully tracked down that Sabaku was born and raised in Suna, Land of Wind. The mother of Sabaku passed away in 1986, due to complications that occurred after giving birth to the defendant. Sabaku was born prematurely, but didn't suffer any mental or physical damage. Sabaku is the youngest of three children. Official records were able to track down the life of Sabaku up to January 2001. After that there has been no trace of the man's actions until the arrest of 2007. The defendant has refused to discuss the issue of lost records multiple times. No attempt on recovering the records has been successful._

_Health:_

_The health of the defendant was inspected after the arrest. Nothing indicated any physical deceases. The examination results of any mental issues/disorders were also clean._

Unlike Sabaku's looks seemed to indicate, the man was not a psychopathic killer lacking control of his actions. But he did have secrets, it seemed.

Naruto yawned and checked his watch. Naruto was surprised to find out it was nearing 11 pm. He'd been ready to leave around nine, but it seemed like he'd been studying quite some time. Naruto closed the case file and took out his phone. He dialed a familiar number. After two rings, there was an answer.

"'Sup moron?" a deep voice asked.

Naruto smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Pleasant. Drag your ass to the Place. I'll see you in ten."

With that Naruto hung up, not giving the other one a chance to decline. He packed the case file with his other belongings and after putting the lights out, he closed the office door behind him.

Exactly ten minutes later Naruto found himself in front of a bar. The Place, it was called, one of his favorites. It was a relaxing, yet classy place. You know the whole James Bond kind of atmosphere.

The blonde made his way inside, immediately catching a familiar figure on the left.

"Yo, bastard!" Naruto hollered and made his way towards a dark haired man sitting at the counter.

The man was Uchiha Sasuke; Naruto's closest friend since childhood.

"That was uncalled for", Sasuke said bumping fists with the blonde.

A childish habit they never grew out of.

"You called me a moron. That makes it entirely called for", Naruto huffed and sat next to his friend.

"Your logic is full of shit", the man said and took a sip from his drink.

Naruto chuckled.

"No, _you_ are. But that aside, what's up?" Naruto asked and ordered a beer.

God knows he needed it.

"Not much. You?"

"Dead tired and piling up with work", the blonde told ruffling through his black briefcase.

He took out the case file he'd stuffed in and slid it over to the man beside him.

"I need you to take a look at it." Naruto said taking a sip of beer.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto before opening the file. A slight expression of surprise was seen on his face when he discovered the content.

"Re-opened?" was his simple question.

"Yeah. The prosecution decided to file for a capital sentence instead and with that, new evidence came up now favoring the guy in jail." Naruto filled in the info.

His friend silently read through the text.

"You worked on this case, didn't you?" Naruto spoke.

"Yeah, I'd just started. I was there, on the scene that day. It's actually not that far from here", Sasuke told.

Sasuke was a few years older than Naruto. He'd already been involved with the whole law business while Naruto had still been studying. Sasuke was a crime scene investigator. One of the best actually. After training to become an officer, he'd decided he wanted to challenge his mind instead of his body and went on to study criminology. The case he was reading through at the moment had been one of his firsts as an investigator.

"So what do you think?" Naruto asked after a while.

Sasuke gave Naruto a slight glare.

"You know I can't give you details without it going through the prosecution as well", he said with a stern voice.

"I thought you might say that. I don't really need any details yet, I just want to know about the case in general. From someone who was involved." Naruto said

Sasuke sighed.

"It's been a while since the case, but…I still think about it sometimes. It was a strange one. The scene was gruesome, but I guess you figured that out from the pictures. I haven't seen a scene like that after it, ever. The amount of blood and body parts was unbelievable. No matter how hard you tried, you ended up stepping in pools of blood and God knows what else…and those pictures in the file, those aren't all of them. There were more weapons discovered on the scene and those were photographed too." Sasuke explained.

"More weapons? But the file only mentioned four and an ax, which was never found." Naruto thought back.

"I'm sure it's marked somewhere in the reports. Aside from the five weapons you mentioned, none were used in the murders. But they too were all brand new, so it was concluded that the killer brought them too."

"Are you sure they were the killers? Perhaps the weapons belonged to the victims?" Naruto suggested.

"Nah, the massacre took place in an office building famous for its luxurious meeting rooms. I doubt they had any use for chainsaws there", Sasuke pondered.

Naruto fell silent for a while to think. Several unused weapons? Why carry extra weight for nothing? He wondered what the report had to say about them. Somehow this crime seemed sloppy, but yet intellectual. It took skill and brains to get away without leaving DNA and fingerprints all over the scene, especially with the murders being so messy. The partial fingerprint seemed to be the only mistake the suspect had made. But there was still a ton to read through.

Naruto snapped awake from his thoughts upon hearing his friend speak.

"You're a defense attorney. That means they want you to take over the defense. You're not seriously thinking about it, are you?" Sasuke asked with an intense stare.

"Dunno yet." Naruto said and sipped from his drink.

"God Uzumaki, this is a hopeless case. You won't win in a million years. Have you even read the file?!"

Naruto made a face.

"Not really, no", he said.

"Obviously. If you've just been over the vague descriptions, you know nothing. The reason this guy went to prison wasn't just a partial fingerprint they found on the scene, but a fucking _survivor_ of this massacre", Sasuke explained.

Naruto chocked on his beer just a little bit.

"A survivor? What the hell, why isn't that the first thing in the file?" Naruto asked coughing the beer out of his lungs.

"It is, right there, dumbass" his friend said pointing at a paper on the counter.

Seemed like it actually was, just on a sheet of paper that Naruto had skillfully skipped.

"Jesus, how did a miss an entire piece of paper? These rough days seem to take a toll on me" Naruto said and ran a hand through his hair.

"Not just _a_ paper, but the first page of the entire file. Anyway, what is this new evidence?" Sasuke sighed at Naruto.

"Haven't got a clue yet. I wanted to learn about the original case first."

"Well, unless the evidence is absolutely groundbreaking, that guy won't stand a chance in court", the older man said pointing the picture of Sabaku.

Naruto took moment to think about this. He didn't really know about the case enough to say if accepting the job was a good idea or not. But somehow he'd gotten interested. He made up his mind about something crucial.

"I'm gonna go meet that guy." Naruto declared.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Sabaku?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah. Do you know who made his profile?" the blonde wanted to know.

"Yeah, but I'm sure the profile is attached to the file." Sasuke told.

"Sure, but I wanna talk to the guy who made it. Ask his personal view on this person, not academic", Naruto explained waiting for a name.

Sasuke pondered if it was really necessary to tell the blonde, but it wasn't his time wasted.

"Hatake Kakashi, a criminal profiler. Works in same building as me. " Sasuke revealed.

"Is he good at this shit?" Naruto wanted to know.

"Well, let's just say, he would find out how many times a week you play with yourself just by looking into your eyes", Sasuke said.

Naruto let out a laugh.

"I'll take that as a good sign. Hold on a minute, I've gotta make a call," Naruto said.

He took out his phone and dialed a number. After a while a soft female voice, belonging to his secretary, answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Hinata. I'm sorry to disturb you this late, but I need you to call a couple of calls first thing in the morning, ok?" Naruto spoke.

"Uhm, sure...is it urgent?" the woman questioned.

"Yeah. I need you to contact a man named Hatake Kakashi in the police department. He is a criminal profiler. Try to arrange a meeting with him around noon, ok? I also need you to contact Fuchu Prison and ask them to schedule me a meeting with a potential client, Sabaku Gaara. As soon as possible, please", Naruto requested.

"...Hatake Kakashi by noon, Fuchu Prison, Sabaku Gaara, urgent...I hope you realize it might take a day or two to get you to Fuchu Prison. It's high security", Hinata told him while writing down the information.

"The guy in charge is familiar with me, that should help" Naruto guessed.

"Ok. Will do, good night"

"Yeah, bye"

Naruto put away the phone and turned to Sasuke.

"I'm interested in this one, you know?" Naruto told him.

"Tsk, you've always been after the impossible haven't you...Well, can't blame you really. I was there. In court the day he was sentenced. I have to admit, even in the deep shit he was in, he still seemed to be in charge of the situation. You can't buy charisma like that", Sasuke smirked and downed the rest of his drink.

Sasuke pulled himself up from his seat and put on his coat.

"I'm gonna go home and sleep away this exhaustion. Call me when you get back from Fuchu?" Sasuke said buttoning up his black coat.

"Sure. Sleep tight, dumbass", Naruto grinned and bumped his fists again with Sasuke's.

"Hn. Asshole"

With that, Sasuke walked out of the bar and left Naruto to finish his beer, his thoughts still revolving around the case.

Strangely, he was kinda excited.

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><p><strong>Reviews, sweeties?<strong>


	2. All Saints Sin

**Here's chapter two for you. Enjoy.**

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><p>In the city of Fuchu, in the cellar of Fuchu Prison, there is solitary cell no. 101. This is the cell of Sabaku Gaara. Has been for two months, three weeks and four days. It wasn't his first time in solitary, perhaps not the last, but it certainly was the most mentally unstable. There was now a problem he could not overcome. There was a crack on the wall. A teeny tiny crack in the grey concrete. And after staring at the same crack<em>, <em>on the same wall, in the same cell, for three _fucking_ months, he had started to weigh his options on the subject. He had considered ripping his eyes out, but decided against it after realizing he didn't know what to do with them afterwards. He'd also thought about just piercing through them to blind the view. It was an option. But he dismissed it too; he had a hunch that his defense in court might not be as believable if he were to do such self-harm. Also, he didn't want to upset the new guy in the cell across his. The man had been crying for two days. It had yet to start annoying Gaara. He wasn't sure what to do if it did. He wasn't sure how exactly making oneself deaf would be done. Making the man silent wasn't an option, since they were separated by a pair of safe doors with plexi glass windows. The window irked Gaara. It let through the unnecessarily bright fluorescent lights lit in the corridor. Gaara preferred the darkness of his cell. It was those damned lights that made the crack in the wall all too visible. He didn't want look at it anymore.

In the end, he decided to carve a new crack to look at.

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><p>Naruto had taken a cab after leaving The Place and in fifteen minutes he'd arrived home. He paid the driver throwing in a tip and then made his way towards the front door of his house. Before he had the chance to take out his keys, the door opened.<p>

Naruto looked up.

"You're late, Naruto", a pink haired woman stated.

Naruto gave an apologetic smile.

"Yeah, I'm sorry Sakura. A new case came up as I was leaving", he explained.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"…You sure this is about a case?" she asked suspicious of something.

"Yes! God, we've been through this. You know I'm a lousy liar", Naruto huffed.

The woman snorted.

"No you're not. You're lawyer. You lie for a living", she said with a bitter tone.

Naruto rolled his eyes. This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation. Being an attorney wasn't an easy job. It was hard at the office and it was hard at home too. This job came with its overtime. It wasn't unusual for him to stay at work longer than planned. He would've loved to leave immediately after the official work hours, but unfortunately, murder cases weren't flexible like that. He being late had become the norm and that had made Sakura suspicious that the overtime wasn't work at all. For example, she wasn't that keen on Naruto's sweet secretary.

"That's not exactly true. And totally missing the point! You should know I'd never do that to you. You're my wife, silly", Naruto said planting a kiss on her forehead.

Sakura couldn't help but to smile.

"Don't you forget that", she told him.

"Wouldn't even dream of it" Naruto chuckled and made his way inside.

He set down his briefcase and put his coat away. He had a feeling Sakura wouldn't like his news.

"I'm probably gonna have to fly Fuchu tomorrow afternoon", Naruto started carefully.

She sighed.

"You know we're supposed to go see the doctor tomorrow, Naruto" she said disappointed.

"I know, sweetie. I'm really sorry, but like I said, a new case came up. It's important", he explained.

Now she just looked scary mad.

"Are you saying that trying to get pregnant isn't?"

Naruto swallowed. He absolutely had to rephrase that.

"No! I didn't mean it like that. I meant that it's _urgent_. As in, it can't wait", Naruto tried to reason.

That came out so, _so_ horribly wrong. He very well knew it wasn't an easy subject to his wife. They'd been trying to get pregnant for a year now, not succeeding. Tomorrow would've been the first doctor's appointment to fix whatever wasn't right.

"I know this is hard for you. It's not easy for me either, but you have to understand that the treatments and especially a _child _don't come without expenses. If we want a family, I can't risk losing any big jobs", Naruto said sitting down on the couch.

Sakura let her stiff shoulders relax in rhythm of a sigh. She sat down beside her husband and looked him in the eyes.

"Fine. But you have to promise me that as soon as you get back, we are going to that ridiculously overpaid doctor and won't wait around anymore. Because, you know what? We're soon gonna turn thirty and we have no idea how long it takes for us to actually get pregnant, if at all. And I don't wanna look back ten years from now and think 'Aw shit, that was our chance'", Sakura said with a stern look on her face.

Naruto smiled.

"I promise", he said.

Soon a sly grin formed on his lips.

"Wanna make some babies?" he whispered to Sakura.

The woman giggled. She then took his hand and led him to the bedroom.

About an hour later, after Naruto had made sure Sakura was asleep, he took out the case file once again. Going over the details was necessary before going any further. With that thought Naruto opened the file and flipped to a page holding the full report. The first few chapters hold no news to him, but as he went on, new aspects came to light.

"_The seven victims were positively identified by professionals as: _

_- Nagato Pain_

_- Deidara (no last name)_

_- Konan Tenshi_

_- Zetsu (no last name)_

_- Hoshigaki Kisame_

_- Kakuzu (no last name)_

_- Hidan (no last name)_

_These people have been linked with the underworld and organized crime. The majority of the victims' last names are unidentified as no detailed records of them were recovered. The research has pointed towards an organization known as Akatsuki that is held in strong suspicion of being involved in organized crime. The victims are believed to have been a part of the said organization. The knowledge on Akatsuki is minimal due to their ability of maintaining low profile. It is not known, how many members this organization officially holds. It is believed that the victims have been living under aliases for an unknown goal."_

Naruto found the news surprising. He wasn't expecting this. Sasuke's professional confidentiality restricted him from telling details, but why not tell Naruto it involved organized crime?

Naruto felt the need to go through the horrific photos again. No matter how hard he tried to reason, the murders just didn't fit into taking revenge of a debt unpaid kind of motive. The rage these murders were filled with had to originate from something more personal than just money affairs or an offended ego. These victims had wronged the killer severely, landed a hit where it hurt the most.

Naruto continued reading the report.

"_The killer was not found on the scene as the officials arrived. Evidence gathered at the scene led the investigation to Sabaku Gaara. The defendant had no alibi for the night of the murder. The fingerprint found on the AA-12 shotgun was a match with the defendants'. The gun had been reported stolen a month prior to the attack. The report was not made in the defendants name, but under an alias Sabaku was using at the time. It seems that the missing years of Sabaku's life were spent under multiple aliases and thus aren't traceable. Sabaku was able to prove that the alias used in the reporting of the stolen weapon was his. The defense filed a complaint about accepting the shotgun as evidence, even though it had been reported stolen, but the complaint was turned down."_

Naruto found strange the jury's decision to use the shotgun as evidence. It didn't seem to go in the lines of protocol. Even if the circumstances of reporting the weapon stolen had been unusual, it still should've been taken into consideration. Just for a second Naruto thought about what kind of influence a powerful crime organization might have even on the strict men of law, then dismissing it as soon as it came. But it wasn't impossible. It had happened before. Bribery, that is.

Not wasting another thought to it, Naruto continued.

"_A survivor of the massacre,_ _Sarutobi Konohamaru (born 1997, age 17), was found a few miles away from the crime scene. Sarutobi was identified by his family as their missing relative. The witness had been reported a missing person two months prior to the attack. The witness claimed to have been sold to the Akatsuki, along with multiple other children, by a human trafficking organization with the intention of training them to perform as soldiers for unknown underworld movement. No evidence supporting this was ever found. The witness testified against Sabaku in court."_

Naruto's breath stopped for a while. The witness was still a minor.

"Shit. The jury will eat out of his hand" Naruto said to himself.

As it seems they had seven years ago too. After the testimony of Sarutobi, the jury had come to an unanimous conclusion of Sabaku's guiltiness. With that, the game had been pretty much over.

"_After the re-opening of the case, the witness came forward with priorly unknown evidence. It came to light that the missing ax had been in the possession of Sarutobi ever since the attack. Unidentified DNA was recovered from the ax. It did not belong to the defendant or any of the victims. This has led the investigators to believe, that there might have been another party involved._

_A lawsuit was filed against Sarutobi for holding back evidence."_

This was good news. Naruto felt a bit more confident about Sabaku's chances of winning. The fact that the only witness seemed a little less reliable was something to be excited about. With the witness being a minor and a potential victim himself was good stuff for the prosecution, but the new evidence had the potential of turning the tables. Sarutobi was no cute kid anymore and with the freshly acquired lawsuit, things looked a bit better for Sabaku. Now Naruto would have to find out who that unidentified DNA belonged to. There was a few possibilities that came to mind. The dna could've been there before the murders. If so, it wouldn't help the defendant in any way. But, if the DNA belonged to someone who got away from the scene, they might get another guy to blame the murders on. That is, if rest of the evidence supported it. It wasn't likely for the DNA to belong to another witness. They would've stepped out at some point.

After another twenty minutes of reading, Naruto's eyes were starting to get a bit too heavy for his own liking, so he closed the file and lowered himself to lie down. Soon he could feel his consciousness shut down and sleep creeping in to replace it. In seconds he was in another state of mind.

The next morning came way too soon in Naruto's opinion. He was exhausted. After just four hours of sleep, he'd dragged himself up at 6 am, poured himself some coffee and gone outside to smoke his morning cigarette. He didn't really see himself as a smoker, but for the last five years he'd had the habit of smoking a cigarette every morning before work. On his days off he didn't smoke. He'd come to the conclusion that the stressful job had to come with some negative affect and supposedly, this was it.

After coffee he made his way to the bedroom to choose clothing. He decided on the most comfortable suit he owned, since this was going to be a long day. He finished the look with a black tie. He also packed a small suitcase with some comfortable clothing, just in case he had to take the flight to Fuchu later on. He kissed goodbye to Sakura and then walked to the cab waiting him outside. He got in and as soon as he got seated, his phone rang.

"Morning, Hinata", Naruto answered.

"Morning. I've made the calls you requested. You now have a meeting scheduled with Hatake Kakashi at 10 am", Hinata told him.

"Great, thank you. How about Fuchu?" Naruto asked.

"Since apparently Sabaku is a high risk inmate, I directly contacted the prison warden and seems like the warden does know you. So, that means you are flying to Fuchu today at 4:35 pm and will be meeting Sabaku at 10 am the next morning. The flight is already booked along with a hotel room and the office has been notified of your absence covering approximately two days", Hinata spoke.

Naruto smiled happily.

"Thanks a million, see you in a couple of days", Naruto thanked and then hung up after goodbyes.

It didn't take long for the cab to pull on a familiar driveway. Before meeting Hatake, Naruto had someone else to see. Going through the data last night had given Naruto some wild, new thoughts and he needed a certain someone's opinion on them.

He knocked on the door he'd walked up to. After a second or two the door opened.

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" a busy looking man asked.

"Hey, Shika. I need to talk to you before you're off to work" Naruto explained.

"About what? Can't we do this at the office?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Well, first of all, I am not gonna be at the office today. I'm working on the case you gave me the file on yesterday. Secondly…I'm here to ask your opinion on the case", Naruto said and welcomed himself into the other man's house.

"Yeah…come in", the man said sarcastically after the blonde had already made his way inside.

"Where's Ino?" Naruto asked referring to Shikamaru's fiancé.

"At work. So you want my opinion on the case? You do know that outsiders are not supposed to know about an open case, right?" Shikamaru said taking a sip from his morning coffee and tightening his tie at the same time.

"Yeah, but I thought that maybe we could keep this between us", Naruto smiled and winked his eye.

Shikamaru pondered that for a second and then shrugged.

"Fine. Show me the file", the man requested.

Shikamaru's brain was like a machine; after ten minutes, give or take, he'd taken in the details and closed the file. He let out a deep sigh.

"This case is too complicated for you", Shikamaru stated as a matter of fact.

Naruto chuckled.

"I'm insulted"

"You know what I mean, moron."

There was a short silence.

"I have a theory", Naruto said.

Shikamaru raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You noticed how undetailed and vague the case report is on some subjects?" Naruto inquired.

Shikamaru thought back for a second.

"Well, mainly on the subject of the victims", the other man answered.

"Exactly. The suspected link to organized crime and human trafficking seems to be almost uninvestigated", Naruto concluded.

"True", Shikamaru confirmed.

"Also, no motive was ever confirmed. It would only be reasonable to suspect that criminal affairs would have something to do with it, if nothing else was found. Especially, if there are existing suspicions of organized crime. So why didn't they make it a top priority to investigate the accusations? They could've found a link to Sabaku, too", Naruto said trying to get the other man on the same page.

Shikamaru looked doubtful.

"…Are you implying to a traitor on the inside?" he asked suspicious.

"Or multiple. This is just speculation, of course. But it's not impossible"

"No, but it's pretty damn far-fetched. It would be difficult for a crime organization to infiltrate this deep in to the law system", Shikamaru reasoned.

"Depends on their resources"

"Why would a criminal organization, with resources that massive, put that much effort to have one guy go to jail? Why not just kill him?" Shikamaru pondered.

"To keep the low profile they're famous for?" Naruto guessed.

Shikamaru thought in silence.

"If your theory is true, it means that Sabaku might quite possibly be the killer. If Akatsuki does have that power in court you suspect, they are making sure this guy will be dealt with. I can't think of another reason, why they'd go through all this trouble, if not to revenge their comrades. This can't be a cover up, since the victims are their own people. Also, if the capital sentence does not come true, there is a high risk that Sabaku will be killed anyway", Shikamaru said.

Naruto considered this. It did seem possible that this was an intimate war going on outside the radar. And that Sabaku was a part of it. That fact would make it stupid for Naruto to get involved, but somehow he had a feeling that this case was meant for him.

"Shika, I need someone smarter than me to say if I should take my chances with this case", Naruto said.

Shikamaru let out a faint chuckle.

"Jesus...I'm a human rights attorney. This goes so against my principals", he sighed, but then continued:

"In my professional opinion, it is possible for you to win this case. You are the best of your field and there are usable aspects in the case." Shikamaru said thoughtfully.

An excited smile formed onto Naruto's face.

"But…if you take this case, you'll just be protecting one evil from the other. It's not likely for Sabaku to be entirely innocent. In the end, it all comes down to where you set your moral grounds. With you being a defense attorney, I'd assume that ground won't be very high up" Shikamaru said with a chuckle.

Naruto huffed.

"Hn, you know as well as I do; it comes with the job. There are no Mother Teresas among lawyers" Naruto said.

"Yeah, I guess so. It's a never-ending battle between money and a sinless soul. I guess neither of us chose the latter. But I still think you're worse than me" Shikamaru said and slapped Naruto in the back of his head.

Naruto glared at him, but then chuckled lightly and pulled himself up from his seat.

"So…your advice is, if I'm okay with being as bad as them, I might as well take the case and make a lot of blood soaked money", Naruto checked with his friend.

"Basically, yeah"

"Well, we'll see how I feel about it after I've met the guy" Naruto said making his way to the door, Shikamaru trailing behind him.

After making it outside, Shikamaru locked the door and then looked Naruto in the eye with a stern look on his face.

"Just…don't get too involved, okay? I know you already know to always keep your distance, but…I have feeling I need to tell you that", he said.

Naruto was slightly taken aback by the other man's seriousness. For a second he felt a bit insulted, as if his colleague had questioned his abilities to do his job properly, but soon realized this was the friend talking. The friend making sure he'd be alright.

"Yeah, I know. It's just a case among others, don't worry", Naruto assured the other.

"No, it's not. I can see it in that face of yours. But I'm okay with it, as long as you don't make it personal" Shikamaru said.

Naruto realized Shikamaru was right. This one wasn't like every other case and Naruto wasn't sure why. But he wanted to find out. Somehow he felt that this could be a turning point in his career.

"Got it", Naruto said and gave a pat on his friends shoulder.

Happy with the answer, Shikamaru smiled. He offered Naruto a ride, who instead decided to go by foot as it was only a walking distance to the police headquarters. After arriving at the station, he checked the time to learn it was only 9:30 am. To kill time he took a cup of coffee and a magazine and seated himself outside the room he was directed to. He'd gotten through the first page of the magazine when the door in front of him opened. A tall man with silvery hair stood in the doorway.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I assume?" the man inquired.

This had to be Hatake.

"Yeah, nice to meet you", Naruto said and shook the other man's hand.

"Hatake Kakashi, it's a pleasure", he introduced himself.

Naruto couldn't help but to wonder the strange appearance of the other man. He was tall and muscular and a fairly good looking guy, but for some reason a mask covered the lower half of his face. It seemed that the man had noticed Naruto's wonderment.

"Half of my face is tattooed. They don't like it here", Hatake said.

It seemed he'd gotten used to the subject.

"I'm sorry, mr. Hatake, didn't mean to stare" Naruto said politely.

"Don't worry about it. Call me Kakashi, I'm not that fond of the whole surname business", Kakashi stated.

Naruto nodded and took a seat in the other man's office.

"You're a bit early. But no worries, I had a free morning, so why not use it for something for productive" Kakashi told.

"Yeah, the walk was faster than I expected" Naruto said with a polite smile.

Kakashi took a seat across Naruto.

"I assume you're not here just for a cup of coffee. So, how can I help you?"

"I need your personal opinion on someone you profiled", Naruto explained.

"Personal? That's unusual. Who are we talking about?" Kakashi asked and tilted his head interested.

"Sabaku Gaara"

The other man went silent. Naruto wasn't sure how to interpret his expression. It took good fifteen seconds of intense staring before the older man spoke again.

"Why?"

"I have been offered to take over his defense"

It was silent again. The other man looked slightly worried.

"So they re-opened it, huh?" Kakashi concluded.

"Yes. So, are you willing to tell me about him?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi pondered for a while, silent again. When he spoke, Naruto got slightly startled.

"Sure, why not?" he said in a sudden carefree tone.

Did this man suffer from mood swings?

"But, I already know it won't matter what I say. You've already decided to accept", Kakashi stated as a matter of fact.

That was more startling. Naruto couldn't say he entirely agreed with the statement, but it seemed that the man really knew what he was doing.

"What makes you think that?" Naruto asked with a chuckle.

"It's a gut feeling"

Naruto couldn't help, but to make the best of that remark.

"You've made a successful career all based on gut feeling? I'm impressed"

"Well, you've made a successful career based on lies and manipulation"

There was a slightly awkward silence. It shattered as Naruto let out a low chuckle.

"I guess that makes us even" Naruto said in a kind tone making the other man smile.

This man was something else and Naruto kind of liked it. He'd always been fond of unusual characters.

Naruto couldn't wait to learn what this man had to say.

* * *

><p><strong>I'd like to point out that the NaruSaku relationship exists strictly as a side pairing and is essential for the plot to function properly. So don't go waiting for anything fluffy between them. Gaara will be introduced to the story in a chapter or two, so bear with me. As you might've noticed, most of the characters personalities aren't exactly canon. Since this AU portrays them as adults in their late 20's and early 30's, I couldn't write them as they originally are. <em>But<em>, I am not trying to take away all their spirit, just growing them to fit into adulthood. And yes, Kakashi's face is tattooed, because I needed a reason why a sane man would walk around with a mask.**

**Please feel free to review!**


	3. Not Like Others

**Yo. Chapter three, folks. **

* * *

><p>Life is fragile. Life is vulnerable. It depends so strongly on everything around it, that if anything is misplaced, everything might fall apart. A second could change everything, break anything. Every second is somebody's last.<p>

After being released from solitary, Gaara had learned that somebody's seconds had stopped the countdown. Someone had been killed inside these walls, again. There had been an old man, who'd seated himself next to Gaara every day, on the same bench for the last seven years. He never spoke a word, neither did Gaara. And neither of them ever would, because the old man was gone now. Someone had killed him with their bare hands, no reason needed. Gaara wasn't sad. He didn't care about the man. But every time an incident of this kind occurred, Gaara felt his disgust towards these animals growing. The men here, they were insects waiting to be squashed. These beasts had no control over themselves; they only felt the need to kill, to leak blood to the ground. Intelligence was nonexistent among these beings. It made Gaara furious. How could they have cast him here, in the middle of these pests?

Gaara didn't see himself as extraordinary. He had no problem admitting that he was nothing more than human. But life had taught him, that in order to survive, avoiding the humanity within him was a necessity. The weak and emotionally charged did not survive in the tough world he'd seen. Even the monsters inside these walls were too human, giving in to the feelings of blood lust, thus making them weak and unable to think rationally. Gaara had rid himself of unnecessary emotions, making only decisions worth the price they came with. That way, he wouldn't have to regret anything. He wanted to play with safe bets.

Unfortunately, he'd found a disturbing flaw in this strategy. No matter how safe you play, a gamble is always a gamble. Even the safest bet will be trash if luck runs out. Life was a personal game of Russian roulette, humanity the gun. This kind of gun was loaded with bullets designed to hit and hurt countless times, before the only shot made to kill would put one out of their misery. This revelation had made Gaara fear the day he'd be forced to make a risky bet, get shot again and left to bleed. Gaara wasn't optimistic enough to think the shot would miss and the bet double his money. Life didn't treat him well like that. He knew that a day would come when he would not be able to avoid the humanity within him.

He could only hope the bullet misses and the bet is worth making.

* * *

><p>Naruto studied the man across him. It was apparent this man owned a good sense of humor and wasn't afraid to be bold. He liked that. He felt like this man could be very useful in learning about the case.<p>

"You've requested for my personal opinion on Sabaku. I'm not sure I can give you what you're hoping for", Kakashi told Naruto.

"I guess we'll know after you've told me about him", Naruto replied.

Kakashi smirked.

"I have a feeling you've set your expectations of me too high. I'm good at my job, but even I can't make miracles happen. You have no way of understanding how closed Sabaku is as a person, until you've met him. Not once during our conversations did he slip anything too personal. He planned his every movement and wording perfectly. No details, no feelings. Only rehearsed dialogues. And well learned ones too; I doubt a person without training in this field would've noticed it was a script acted out", Kakashi began.

Naruto wasn't surprised upon hearing this description.

"Did he seem manipulative?" Naruto questioned.

Kakashi shook his head.

"I wouldn't say he was. Misleading, perhaps, but he didn't seem to have any desire to control us", he explained.

That supported the fact that Sabaku wasn't mentally unstable.

"Did your profile conclude him as possibly homicidal?" Naruto wanted to know.

"Yes"

Naruto frowned. Even though it didn't surprise him, he was disappointed.

"Not compulsively homicidal. But his profile did match the characteristics of someone capable of it. Actually it's impossible to exactly determine, who'd be capable of taking a human life. I believe anyone is, in the right circumstances. But we do have a personality traits map that gives the description of people who have the highest potential and Sabaku fit in" Kakashi said.

"Was those traits the only thing that led you to this conclusion?"

"No. The fact that he was so reluctant to tell any details about himself or the life he'd lived was a big point too. You don't hide things that aren't worth hiding. The way he was capable of keeping his act going without losing his cool seemed almost professional. We suspected he'd gotten military training, but it was impossible to prove since there are no records of him. It is possible he's worked under another government", Kakashi continued.

Could this be linked to government issues? It wasn't probable. If that was the case, it would've most likely been dealt with in secret.

"Did he seem violent by nature?"

Kakashi pondered for a while.

"Nope, at least not in an irrational way. He didn't resist the arrest, nor was he violent in remand. As I said, he was always calm and collected" he then answered.

"You said the profile was based on statistical probabilities. But do you personally believe he's a murderer?" Naruto wanted to know.

Kakashi fell silent for a while as if not sure how to respond.

"I am not actually required or even aloud to mix my personal opinions in an official case, but…I'll tell you that I don't know how to answer your question", Kakashi informed.

Naruto curiously tilted his head.

"How come?" he asked.

"How could I dictate something like that about a person I do not know?"

His answer made Naruto confused.

"I thought that's what you do for a living", Naruto said.

"Yes, I make my money by fitting people into pre-dictated boxes. But even I don't know if I made the right call or not. I go strictly by the book. I profile as I am instructed, I give the results and move on"

"What about that gut feeling of yours?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"I am very good at reading people, yeah. My gut feeling does help me analyze probabilities faster, but I don't let it interfere too much. I doubt any court will give a sentence based on my gut feeling", Kakashi explained.

"Of course not. That's why asked about your personal view on this guy. Everything you told me I can find in the report. So, what did your gut feeling say about Sabaku?" Naruto asked again.

Kakashi set his eyes on Naruto's and narrowed them slightly.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing"

Naruto was confused again. What was that supposed to mean?

"What do you mean by nothing?"

"Exactly that. I already told you, I can't make conclusions about people I don't know. I can't read people if there's nothing to read. That man was completely blank. It was like trying to profile a sculpture; cold as stone from head to toes. There was no personality to read, he hid _everything_." Kakashi said.

Naruto took in what he'd heard. Apparently Kakashi couldn't help him learn about Sabaku's personality, but he did get information he could use to prepare himself for the meeting.

"Hn. You were right. I didn't get what I hoped for, but I still find this helpful" Naruto said pulling himself up from the chair.

"Thank you, Kakashi. You've been a great help" he continued shaking the other man's hand.

"No problem", he answered with a smile.

Naruto said goodbye and turned around to leave. He opened the door, but was stopped by the other man's voice.

"I was right, wasn't I?"

Naruto turned around and smiled a polite smile.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"You're gonna accept, aren't you?" Kakashi smirked.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.

"I don't feel a need to answer as it seems you've already made up your mind about that", Naruto said and winked his eye.

Kakashi answered with a knowing smile and with that, Naruto left the room. Naruto couldn't help but to shake his head in amusement after closing the door. There was no way he'd admit that the man might've been right.

It was 5:45 pm and Naruto was on the flight towards Fuchu. According to his calculations, it shouldn't take long for the plane to arrive at its destination. Even though he'd had plenty of time between the meeting with Kakashi and the flight's departure, he'd nearly missed the check-in. He'd gone back home after an early lunch to collect the suitcase he'd packed ready for the flight, only to find Sakura in a very disturbing mood. He learned that Hinata, his secretary, had called his house with urgent affairs only to be picked up by Sakura. Naruto and his wife had agreed that work would not be carried home, including phone calls from the office. So when Hinata called, she reasoned the only explanation could be that Naruto was having an affair. Why else would his secretary call home if they'd agreed that wouldn't happen? Naruto's guess was on the fact that he'd forgotten to inform Hinata about this said agreement. Sakura wouldn't believe and interpreted it as an excuse. The fight lasted for two hours and would've continued if Naruto hadn't left to the airport. He barely made it through the check-in.

Naruto was so done with that particular subject. Cheating. He didn't practice it, nor did he feel the need to. He was happy being a one woman's man, but Sakura wouldn't believe him. Sometimes, Naruto questioned his ability to endure her suspicions anymore. But he didn't want to give up on the marriage they built. He'd been the one to fall in love and chase the girl of his dreams. When he'd succeeded, it had been miraculous.

But now, the miracle had somehow been buried beneath a mountain of anger and jealousy and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to move that mountain.

Naruto was awakened from his thoughts when the speakers informed that the plane would be arriving to Fuchu in five minutes. Soon, the landing was over. In twenty minutes, he'd gotten out of the plane and made his way through the terminal. He took a cab from the line of cars in front of the terminal and gave the address to his hotel. After a half an hour of horrible traffic and a way too long chat with the cab driver, he arrived at the hotel. He made his way inside as soon as possible, feeling tired as hell. As soon as he got to his room, he fell down onto the bed. He wanted to close his eyes and drift to sleep, but instead forced himself to stay awake. He took a look at the time. Only 7:12 pm. Too early for bed, too late for sightseeing. After a while, he decided on going downstairs to have a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant.

He popped himself up from the bed and opened up the suitcase he'd taken with him. He quickly rid himself of the suit he'd been dressed in the entire day. Sitting on a plane with a tie this tight had been hell, but the fight with Sakura hadn't left him any time to change. Excited about finally being able to put on something more comfortable, he picked out fairly tight, black jeans, a white t-shirt and a pair of Converse. On his free time he preferred casual clothing. He wasn't that picky about clothes, but he did have his own style and liked to express himself when he wasn't on the job. Sakura often nagged him about the clothes he wore; she felt that Naruto's clothing wasn't sharp enough for his age and that the rocker look was more for teenage boys. The same went for the piercing on his left ear. Naturally, he left the ear undecorated at the office, but when he wasn't on duty, he didn't like anybody protesting against it. There were also something else Sakura wasn't so fond of, but Naruto couldn't get rid of; his tattooed arms and upper body. Before law school, before respectable people around him, life hadn't treated him very kindly. He'd been a child without a family. His parents had passed away before he'd gotten the chance to make memories with them. The foster home he grew up in couldn't replace a real family and the lack of bonds made him a depressed and lonely child. Loneliness led to a crowd with a lifestyle that wasn't on law's better side. That crowd became his family. Among that crowd was someone special; Sasuke. Like Naruto, he'd lost his parents too. Only his brother, Uchiha Itachi, was left. Life could've gone down the wrong path, for all of them. Luckily, Itachi pulled himself together and took it up to study law. Today, Itachi is the president of the National Research Institute of Police Science. Looking up to him, both Naruto and Sasuke followed his steps and made it their mission to have a career in law. Life turned around for all of them, but the rough start left its mark with ink on the bodies of both Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had never regretted using his skin as an open book for others to read, it was a part of him. It had never done him any harm, even career wise, as all of it was coverable with clothing.

After changing, Naruto took a quick glance in the mirror. He slightly ruffled up his neatly sleeked hair to get rid of anything work related. Satisfied with the reflection, he exited the hotel room and made his way downstairs. He entered the restaurant and scanned the room for a place to sit. Apart from an older couple and a young lady, the place was empty. He decided to take a seat at the quietest corner. He wasn't in the mood for any human interactions and figured it'd be the best place for isolating himself from his surroundings. He was wrong, of course. While waiting to be served, he noticed the young lady a few tables away staring at him. When Naruto glanced at her way, he was praised with a seductive smile. Naruto sighed. He wasn't in the mood for this. Obviously, the woman didn't understand that, and stood up to make her way towards him. Naruto decided not to look at her. Even as the woman stood next to him, he wouldn't spare her a word.

"Hey stranger", the woman said with a soft voice.

Naruto couldn't help but to roll his eyes. Not in the mood, at all.

"Sorry sweetie, but no", he said assuming she'd take the hint.

Apparently not.

"Don't be so cold", she said and took the seat across him.

Naruto tried to keep his cool.

"Seriously lady, not happening", he repeated and glared at the woman.

She smirked.

"You don't look too happy. I could make it all better", she assured him.

Naruto took a look at the woman. She was younger than him, by a few years. In her mid-twenties, most likely. She was attractive.

"My problems are something that don't get cured with a pretty face", he told her bluntly.

"You don't know if you don't try"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Just for a second, he actually considered it. Somehow he felt like he didn't give a shit about anything at the moment. He was exhausted, fed up with his personal life and a nervous wreck about tomorrow. Would it really matter what he did?

He dismissed the thought as soon as he discovered it made him incredibly enraged. He wasn't selfish like that. And he wouldn't be.

"Fuck off, I'm married", Naruto told the woman, got up and walked away, leaving the woman by herself.

Naruto was furious with himself. How had he let a thought of that kind slip into his mind? He wasn't a cheater, he wasn't a traitor. He'd started to feel like someone else. It had been going on for a few months now. And in the last two days, something had drastically changed. He was losing his grip on what was sensible. He was getting too hooked on his new case, on Sabaku. He had to collect himself before he truly would be in pieces.

He decided that it was time to form a bond with the minibar.

The next morning wasn't pleasant. It seemed that heavy drinking before an important meeting hadn't been a good idea. It was nine o'clock, when Naruto snapped awake and instantly panicked. The alarm hadn't woken him up in time. In a hurry, he dressed himself in a suit, hoping he'd make it in time to the meeting. Luckily, the hotel wasn't far away from the facility, but the traffic around here was horrible.

In ten minutes he'd gotten himself presentable and was ready to leave the room. While quickly making his way downstairs, he combed his hair neatly back in an attempt to not look slightly hangover. It wasn't usual for Naruto to drink, but lately he'd been so tired and stressed, yesterday got out of hand. The timing, of course, had to be the worst possible.

Arriving to the lobby, he checked the time. It was 9:15 am, meaning his ride should be waiting. He quickly checked the content of his briefcase to make sure nothing was forgotten and then rushed outside. A grey van was parked on the side of the road. The side of the vehicle had the letters 'Fuchu Prison' painted on it. Naruto headed towards the van and opened the door.

"I assume this is my ride", he said startling the man behind the wheel.

The man took a look at the notepad in his lap.

"Uzumaki Naruto? I need you to show me some ID", the man said.

Naruto took out his passport and handed it to the man. After getting the formalities out of the way, Naruto took a seat.

"Sorry for being a bit late. The ride shouldn't take very long, right?" Naruto wanted to know.

"About twenty minutes, give or take", was the answer.

Naruto grunted. He'd arrive in time, but getting through security might take a while. The ride took five minutes longer than estimated. With thanks he left the van as soon as it arrived through the highly secured front gate. There were two men welcoming him. Naruto let the men lead him through the entrance used by visitors. There he got introduced to three guards, a metal detector and a x-ray scanner. He put his belongings into a plastic container for the scanning and walked through the metal detector. Without any problems, he passed the security measures and was free to continue. He was led down a long, gloomy corridor to a door that seemed to be the entrance of an office. Naruto knocked on the metallic surface, already having a hunch of what he'd find behind it. The door opened to reveal what he'd expected.

"Hello, Naruto. It's been too long", an older man with long, white hair greeted him.

"Hello, Jiraiya. It's nice to see you again", Naruto said with a smile.

Jiraiya was an old acquaintance of Naruto's. He'd served as a kind of mentor to Naruto while he'd been studying. They became good friends, but the relationship grew distant as the older man was offered a job as the warden of Fuchu Prison. This was their first reunion in years.

"I heard you're here to meet Sabaku Gaara", Jiraiya said.

"Yeah. I've been offered the position as his defense attorney", Naruto verified.

"I see. Have you decided to accept?" The man asked interested.

Naruto didn't know how to answer so he decided to shrug his shoulders instead. The other man nodded.

"Okay, then. This way, please", Jiraiya said and began to lead Naruto further down the hallway.

Naruto followed him through a few doors and a couple of turns until they arrived at a more secured entrance. The door was made of thick iron and seemed to have a built-in alarm system. Jiraiya pressed a few numbers and the door buzzed as a sign of the code being correct.

"Sabaku is an inmate who normally isn't allowed to have visitors, so you'll be meeting him in a secured room. There will be guards outside the room and cameras watching you. Sabaku will be cuffed, so don't be worried", Jiraiya assured Naruto.

"I'm not", Naruto answered simply.

"There also is a buzzer to set the alarm off, if anything was to happen", the older man continued.

Naruto nodded and followed the other man into a room. The room was like the rest of the facility; dark and not inviting at all. On the left wall there was a mirror. Double-sided, Naruto assumed. And across the room, another door. Most likely meant for inmates. Apart from a table secured to the floor and a couple of chairs, the room was empty.

"Please take a seat on this side of the table", Jiraiya instructed Naruto.

Naruto did as told. He'd visited prisons multiple times, so this wasn't new to him. But for the first time in years, he was nervous about meeting an inmate. He'd gotten used to all sorts of maniacs and wasn't easily affected by these kinds of situations. So why was he nervous?

"Relax. You've done this before. It's a meeting like any other", Jiraiya seemed to have noticed Naruto's stiff shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm okay", Naruto said with a polite smile.

He wasn't, not really. Somehow this case had created unexpected feelings. Nothing seemed like before and it was like his first case all over again. The nervousness, the uncertainty; he hadn't felt those in years. He'd always been confident about the way he performed his job, but his time, a nagging feeling at the back of his head told him there was no way to prepare for what's coming.

Naruto took a deep sigh to get his grip. With determination, he shut all emotions down. This was the measure he had to take in order to perform flawlessly. He'd done it for years, it'd gotten easy. And he wouldn't let this time be any different.

"What time is it?" Naruto asked.

Before Jiraiya got the chance to answer, the door on the other side of the room opened. Naruto turned to see. A man with cherry red hair, dressed in an orange jumpsuit stepped into the room. The man's cold gaze turned to look at Naruto dead in the eye. His breath hitched involuntarily.

There were the eyes Naruto had anxiously been waiting to see. And they were every bit as cold as promised.

* * *

><p><strong>We are finally getting some Gaaraness to enjoy. Please review.<strong>


	4. Primitive Humanity

Naruto had trouble breathing steadily. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. He'd never had a feeling like this before. He couldn't find a word to describe it. The man before him was nothing like he'd expected. He was taller, paler and more stoic than he'd ever imagined. And his eyes…they weren't blue. They were a poisonous color of green. Naruto found it terrifying how icy such warm colored eyes could be.

Naruto felt suddenly so confused. He wasn't supposed to have a reaction to his clients. This feeling was entirely new and he had no idea how to deal with it. For the first time in years, he'd come across an emotion that couldn't be shut down. All he could do was to make sure it wouldn't show.

Gaara had his cold stare glued to Naruto's eyes. Naruto couldn't tear away from it. He watched carefully as the other man slowly walked over to the table and sat down across him. Gaara patiently let the guards chain his handcuffs to the table, never breaking the eye contact. Naruto didn't find the man's staring disturbing, oddly enough. It just seemed…mesmerizing. This had to be the affect he'd been told about. Gaara seemed to have an aura around him, that pushed away all else. It was as Sasuke said; you can't buy charisma like that. It was unlike anything he'd felt before. He was like a sculpture, artistically cold. Naruto couldn't help but to respond to the stare that was glued on him. He wondered if it was common for Gaara to lay such intense eyes on others. In an inexplicable way it felt flattering to be watched so closely. He didn't seem to give any attention to the other people in the room. Neither of them seemed to have noticed the room had been empty for a while now. It took Naruto a couple of seconds more to clear his head and get his voice back.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I understand you have offered me a job?" Naruto said trying hard not to sound uncertain.

The other man nodded, still looking into his eyes. Naruto forced to keep himself calm. He made sure his eyes were as cold as the man's across him.

"I've gone through the files and I'll admit I'm interested. But, there are questions I need to ask you", Naruto continued.

Naruto waited for the other man to say something, but it seemed to be in vain. Not wasting time, Naruto took out the case file, a notepad and a pen.

"Have you been informed of all the changes in the case?" Naruto asked.

The other man nodded.

"Have you decided to oppose the filing of capital sentence?"

He nodded again.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Gaara not speaking irked him.

"When asked in court, how will you plead?" Naruto asked with a stern look on his face.

An almost unnoticeable change in the other man's eyes could be seen.

"Not guilty"

Naruto was startled by the deepness of his voice. It was like the low hum of a V8 engine. It was pleasant, but had a dangerous tone to it.

"You have already been convicted. Now is your chance to overturn that verdict. That means, you need to start talking", Naruto continued keeping his face stoic.

A sly smirk formed onto Gaara's lips. It made Naruto uncomfortable.

"Everything you need to know is written in that file. Now it's up to you; do you have the brains to figure it out?" Gaara asked.

The other man's words made Naruto incredibly annoyed. Gaara would have to be stupid to keep information from him. That's what Naruto wanted to believe, but he knew better. Gaara wasn't stupid. There had to be a reason behind this. But what irked Naruto even more, was that the redhead had seen through his cover. He'd realized Naruto wouldn't be able to say no to that kind of challenge.

"Do you _want_ me to decline?"

Gaara slowly leaned forward as much as his chains gave way. He looked into Naruto's eyes once again.

"You won't"

Naruto had to bite his tongue to keep himself from expressing the growing irritation he was feeling. This man was becoming an obsession. And not in a good way. But he did know why. The challenge this case set him was beyond anything before. The entire point in choosing this career was to fulfill his thirst for intellectual puzzles. He'd never been a smart kid by nature, but his obsession with unsolved mysteries had made his brain work in unique ways. That was the sole reason why he wouldn't be able to decline, even if he wanted to.

"Fine. It's no use for me to drag this out. I'll accept", Naruto said

Gaara's eyes reflected mild satisfaction. Naruto stayed irritated. The other man had read him too easily. Nobody else had been capable of it. His determination for tearing through Gaara's cover was stronger than ever. He'd win this case and he'd absolutely learn all secrets the man watching him held in hiding.

Naruto stood up to take his leave.

"I need a few hours to make it official. The trial begins in two days. You'll have to hope I'm smart enough to make a strong case with the minimal information I have", Naruto said and turned around to leave.

Suddenly Gaara stood up, his chains rattling against the table. Slightly startled, Naruto turned to look at him. The man had that intense look in his eyes again.

"I know you will. That's why I chose you", he said.

Naruto was silent and just watched him with a cold stare.

"I'll see you in court", he then said and walked away.

When Naruto was no longer on prison ground he couldn't stop a relieved sigh escaping his lips. He felt quite unstable. How was that even possible? He was too professional to be acting like this.

Gaara's ability to see through his façade terrified him. Nobody else had ever succeeded in seeing behind the act and certainly not created any feelings he wasn't able to block. Naruto didn't know how to deal with it. Was it the excitement of working on such an unusual case that made him unstable? Or maybe, Gaara's inhuman way of coming across as stone cold was the reason for his inexplicable feelings. It didn't really matter; he'd find a way to shut them down, too. He wouldn't let anything get in his way.

Hours later Naruto was wandering around the town. It was getting dark. He'd made a million calls in order to get things official and going. He was now Gaara's attorney and the preparations for trial had been made. Well, apart from the fact that he had no idea what kind of a case to present. He had new evidence that favored Gaara, but that wouldn't be enough.

Naruto looked took a look around him. It seemed that this wasn't the best part of town. The people looked as rough as the hood itself and the act of prostitution was visible on every street corner. Naruto didn't mind. He'd wanted to get away from "better people" and blend in to the surroundings that reminded him of childhood. Swimming in dangerous waters felt more at home to him than the polished world of money and beautiful people. He fit in just fine; even the years in legal business hadn't taken away the rough edges.

Naruto's thoughts revolved around the case. And Gaara. Their meeting had been brief, but it had been enough to make Naruto feel attached to the case on a completely new level. The anxiousness it created had turned into an adrenaline rush and he knew he wouldn't be able to resist it. Even if it had made him feel uncomfortable.

He'd finally had time to process the weird feelings that had surfaced. He'd succeeded in pushing them away. Still, it bothered him to have been such a nervous wreck. He also was worried about the fact that he had about 48 hours to come up with a compelling case. Gaara obviously had high hopes of him. Naruto wasn't sure he'd be able to live up to them. But, because Naruto was a stubborn son of a bitch, he wouldn't give up.

Naruto stopped in front of a bar. He decided to make his way inside and straight to the counter. The place wasn't as bad as it could've been. It was surprisingly neat and nearly empty. He took a seat at the counter and ordered vodka on the rocks. He usually wasn't a big fan of spirits, but since he still had to call Sakura, it was a necessity. Taking a gulp from his drink, he dialed Sakura's number and let it ring. He didn't have to wait long.

"Hey", his wife answered.

She sounded tired.

"Hey. I'm sorry", Naruto apologized.

"Me too. How was your meeting?" She asked deciding to avoid the subject of their earlier fight.

Naruto was satisfied with her decision.

"It was…interesting. I accepted", he told.

The line went silent for a while.

"When does the trial start?"

"In two days"

She was silent again.

"Are you coming home?" she carefully asked.

She feared the answer. She knew the trial would be held in Fuchu, meaning it could take anything from days to weeks to months.

"Yeah. I'll come by. We'll go to the doctor as I promised", Naruto said with a faint smile in his voice.

He could hear Sakura breathe out relieved.

"Thank you. I love you"

"Love you too. I'll see you tomorrow"

With that, Naruto hang up. He downed the rest of his drink. To be honest, he didn't feel like going home at all. Home had become a restless environment. He was afraid he'd be taking an expensive flight just to get into a fight with Sakura again. But had he not complied, a fight would've been unavoidable. Trying to push those thoughts away he ordered another drink. His order was placed in front of him on the counter.

"Tough day?" the bartender, a man around his age, spoke.

Naruto couldn't help but to snort upon hearing such a cliché.

"Yeah", he answered with a tired smile.

"If it's any help, so was mine", he continued.

"I'd like to say I don't enjoy other people's misery, but it kinda does help", Naruto chuckled.

"Glad to be useful. It's a quiet night, it's nice to get someone to chat to", the other one said.

Naruto wanted to roll his eyes. He wasn't really in the mood to chat, but he couldn't say that. He might've been an asshole at work, but he tried to avoid it in his personal life.

"I doubt I'm any good company right now", Naruto said with an apologetic smile.

The man studied him for a second.

"Trouble in paradise?" was his guess.

"Isn't there always?"

The bartender shook his head sympathetically.

"And let me guess, rough day at the office, too?"

Naruto looked up from his glass.

"Sort of"

The other man smirked.

"You know, it doesn't really take skill to ask the right questions. There are exactly three reasons why men drink with a sad face. They either had a fight with the lady, a shitty day on the job or they killed a man, and I have a feeling you've experienced at least two of those today", he said.

Naruto drank up his drink in one sitting and put the glass on the counter.

"Bulls eye. Keep 'em coming", he said and sighed.

The bartender nodded and poured another one. For about 45 minutes, he didn't disturb Naruto, who was grateful for that. By the time Naruto had downed his fifth drink, the man spoke again.

"Ready to talk?"

Naruto looked at him from behind his bangs.

"If you pour one more, I might", Naruto told him.

The man smiled and poured one as asked. Naruto took a sip and then spoke.

"I'm a lawyer. Doesn't that tell you enough?"

The bartender tilted his head.

"Interesting. Wasn't my first guess. Your kind usually doesn't come to this this part of town. So, a difficult case?" he guessed.

Naruto pondered if it was a good idea to reveal anything, but he felt a need to get it out.

"Yeah. I've come here to meet a potential client, but…this case is a mess. It's all over the place and then again not really anywhere where I could grab a hold of it. There are suspicions of this and that, but nothing is confirmed. Nothing is really investigated enough, either. Everybody's just filled up with secrets", Naruto told, trying not to let too much away.

The details of Gaara's case weren't widely known and he wanted to keep it that way.

The other man pondered a while before speaking.

"Sounds to me like you're struggling with something powerful. There is something that can't really be solved. Does it seem that something has been left out of the investigation?" the man asked knowingly.

Naruto looked at him suspiciously.

"Why?"

The other one stopped his motions and turned to look at him.

"Yakuza"

Naruto went silent. How could he conclude anything from the information he'd given?

"Why are you capable of making conclusions based on what I told you?" he demanded to know.

"We all have a past, don't we?" the man said and glanced at the art on Naruto's body.

To anyone else the ink was nothing more than pretty pictures, but based on the look the man gave him, he knew better. Naruto hoped the man wouldn't dig any deeper on the subject.

"Why are you this interested?" Naruto asked.

"I wasn't, until you told me about your case. Everything else, just a part of the job", he said with that smile he seemed to be quite fond of.

"Hn…yakuza", Naruto murmured to himself.

The other man glanced at him.

"Want my advice?"

Naruto couldn't shake the suspicious glare that was directed at the man offering help.

"I can't trust you", Naruto stated.

The smile was gone when the other one turned to look at him again. He looked at Naruto for a while, then lifting up the helm of his shirt.

"Whoa, what are you d-", Naruto started, but soon shut up.

Under the clothing, on the man's pale skin, were decorative tattoos. It didn't take him long to recognize them as ink typically carried by yakuza members. Naruto was at a loss of words. Why the hell would he reveal that?

"Well, interested?" the man asked.

Naruto's suspicion hadn't faded.

"Why would you show me this? Tell me this?" Naruto asked annoyed.

"I don't lead that life any longer and I've done my time already. But I do have stories to tell. Plus, you're cute", he said.

Oh, he swung that way.

"I'm flattered. But I play for the other team"

"Doesn't matter, still cute", the man answered and offered Naruto another drink.

Naruto happily took it and presented another question for him.

"That still doesn't explain why you're telling me all this. Is it usual for you to go around lifting up your shirt to strangers?" Naruto questioned and took a sip from the drink.

His companion chuckled.

"No. What I've been involved with isn't exactly a secret around here. And you might be on the better side of the law now, but I know you're familiar with the other one too", he said and reached out to pull down the collar of Naruto's shirt, revealing a meaningful tattoo.

Naruto yanked the man's hand away. The man smirked.

"That ain't just a pretty picture. That's a gang stamp", he said with a sly smile.

The man was just a bit too clever for Naruto's taste.

"Fine. I'll listen", he said.

The other one smiled satisfied before speaking.

"I know for a fact, that yakuza occasionally has the power to be invisible to the law. Money and power are the currencies in this world, and they have both. If there are suspicions of organized crime linked to any lawsuits, they're usually dismissed right away. Especially links to the most guarded organizations are cut as soon as possible", he explained.

This made Naruto think about the reference to Akatsuki.

"What might those closely guarded organizations be?" he asked.

"Some clans and freelance organizations are specialized in certain jobs. I'd say that hitmen are the ones that keep the lowest profile", the former yakuza continued.

Could Akatsuki be a group of hitmen? The witness had claimed he'd been sold to Akatsuki with the intention of training him to become a soldier. Could a soldier mean a hired killer?

"What about human trafficking?" Naruto wanted to know.

"It's common. Certain clans practice it as their main job. Mainly selling women and children", the other man told.

If Akatsuki was a part of yakuza and specialized in hired killing, the witness' claims might've been true. If so, the claims were most likely dismissed to protect yakuza. In that case Akatsuki really had the power to control the investigations, which meant that Gaara probably wasn't all that innocent. Otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered.

"Is there reason why yakuza _wouldn't_ kill someone who's rubbed them the wrong way?" Naruto asked.

The other man was slightly surprised by his question.

"I guess…if killing them would damage their cover, they wouldn't", he assumed.

If his suspicions were right, Gaara could be linked to the victims through yakuza. But as long as yakuza wants to protect their façade, the link won't be found. With that thought, Naruto drank up the rest of his drink and stood up. He glanced at the other man.

"How is it possible that this happened? How did I find you in this massive city? There can't be that many ex-yakuza's walking around", Naruto asked feeling the alcohol buzzing in his head.

"It could be faith, eh?" the other one suggested.

Naruto snorted but then shrugged.

"Don't know, don't care. It was useful, so thank you", Naruto said and extended his arm to shake hands with the other man.

He accepted the offered hand and nodded.

"No problem. If you ever have second thoughts about which team to play for, come by", he said and winked.

Naruto chuckled and playfully planted a kiss on the man's hand still attached to his.

"Sure", he promised and started to make his way towards the door.

After a couple of steps, Naruto turned around to face the other man once more.

"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask….what's your name?" Naruto asked.

The other one smiled kindly and said:

"I'm Sai"

"I owe you one, Sai"

* * *

><p>Gaara was never one to have high expectations. He'd learned that unnecessary positivity often led to disappointment. The less you expect, the fewer letdowns you'll experience. This logic did not originate from fear of getting hurt, but instead was based on the fact that all unnecessary feelings were a waste of time. But today, for just a second, something humane had awakened inside him. An emotion. He'd rid himself of those a long time ago, not finding any real use for them. So, naturally he'd been taken aback by the tingling feeling of excitement that had passed his body earlier that day. Gaara had been fascinated by it, as he'd long forgotten what it was like to experience those primitive emotions. He hadn't found the feeling disturbing at all, just the cause of it. Gaara's hopes of getting out of prison had materialized in the form of Uzumaki Naruto and seeing him in the flesh had affected Gaara in unexpected ways. What bothered him was that a complete stranger had been able to draw out aspects of him that were supposed to be long gone. Even if it was for just a blink of an eye. He tried to forget about it, but his thoughts always came around back to it. He couldn't stop wondering if it was just a one time thing or would it occur again?<p>

It seemed that there was even more to Uzumaki than he'd thought. And now, he couldn't wait to see what exactly that man was capable of.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, finally Gaara is introduced. I am aware that the meeting between Naruto and Gaara is quite short, but no worries; it's intentional. Also, I don't know yet if Sai will be a character of any particular importance in this story, we'll see. Anyways, go ahead and review.<strong>


	5. Burning Bridges

**I am updating exceptionally quick, because I had this chapter ready and waiting. It's a shorter one, but still something.**

* * *

><p>Naruto had left early in the morning to catch his flight back home. He would have exactly 24 hours to go to the doctor with Sakura, throw together a presentable case and fly back to Fuchu to be in court. It was now twelve o'clock and Naruto was standing outside the hospital, waiting for his wife to arrive. He was nervous. He hated hospitals and never would've agreed on coming if it wasn't for Sakura. He knew it was important to her. She'd dreamed of becoming a mother since a little girl, and discovering it might not happen had been a stab in the heart. Naruto wanted to have children, too. But he'd come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be the end of the world to live without offspring. He never told that to Sakura, of course. It wasn't necessary for her to know.<p>

"Naruto!"

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and turned around to see his wife rushing over to him. Naruto offered her a kind smile as she reached him.

"I'm not late, am I?" Sakura asked and gave him a quick kiss.

"No, don't worry. We'll make it in time", he reassured and walked her through the entrance.

The sterile smell of the hospital made Naruto want to gag. He wanted to turn right around and walk away, but for Sakura's sake he went on with it.

"Is this going to take long?" Naruto asked impatiently.

Sakura glared at him.

"I know you're in a hurry and that the hospital isn't your favorite place, but suck it up. At least pretend to be interested", she huffed and went to walk ahead of Naruto.

Naruto sighed and trailed after her.

Long enough, it seemed.

It was an hour later and they'd finally gotten out. Not only did Naruto hate the hospital, but he also wasn't a big fan on giving any sort of samples of himself and _especially_ not the kind he'd ended up giving.

"That was fucking horrible. A man is not meant to masturbate in a room that smells like chlorine and semen", Naruto said quite disturbed.

Sakura couldn't help but to snicker.

"Well, you won't have to do it again. I think they got what they wanted", she assured.

"If not, then too bad, I ain't doing that again", he said with determination.

Sakura smiled and watched him fondly. She then stopped walking and grabbed Naruto's arm to catch his attention. She looked worried.

"Naruto…I know things have been shitty lately. I just…please don't give up, okay?" Sakura pleaded to him.

Naruto looked into her green eyes. He felt all irritation fade away as he watched the woman's sad face. It was the face he'd fallen in love with. Unfortunately, that pretty face had lately been cast under the dark shadow of pain and anger.

"I won't", he said.

Sakura smiled and nodded happily. Naruto smiled back, but felt a stab in his heart.

He hoped he'd be able to keep that promise.

* * *

><p>Naruto's next stop was at the office. He'd gone there right after the doctor's appointment. He felt kind of relieved to be in his work environment again as he stepped out from the elevator.<p>

"Hey, Hinata", he greeted the woman sitting by her desk outside his office room.

"Hello. How was your trip?" she politely asked.

"It was interesting, I must say", he told.

"I see. Nara Shikamaru asked you to contact him", she informed.

Naruto assumed he wanted to hear about the meeting.

"Ok, I'll visit him. Thanks", he told her and went on to find his way to Shikamaru's office.

At the right entrance he knocked on the door.

"Come in", was the answer.

Naruto stepped in and walked up to his friend's desk, taking a seat next to it.

"I heard you wanted to see me", Naruto started.

"Yeah, I wanted to know how the meeting went", Shikamaru said.

Naruto sighed.

"It was…weird", Naruto described.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Weird? Sounds…great", he commented sarcastically.

"It was nothing like I'd expected. I mean, he was all cold and closed up as I was told, but, _shit _that guy had a talent to make you uncomfortable", Naruto continued.

"How so?"

Naruto tried to find words to describe the feeling, but failed.

"It's not something I can explain. You'd have to experience it yourself", he said.

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Well, that's not really even what I'm interested in. What I want to know is, did you accept?"

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, I did."

Shikamaru seemed thoughtful.

"Why?"

It was a justifiable question. Naruto wouldn't be able to answer that without sounding a little bit of an idiot.

"He challenged me."

Shikamaru's stare said it all.

"That makes you sound like a twat."

Naruto snorted.

"I know. But you know me, I can't say no to a challenge."

Shikamaru shook his head.

"Yes, you can when it comes to a homicidal maniac", Shikamaru said with a judging tone.

"He's not a maniac. And I'm not stupid enough to do it alone for the challenge. I know I can win", Naruto huffed.

"Maniac enough. Don't worry, I won't butt in too much. It's your career, not mine. But remember what I said to you about getting too involved."

Naruto sighed. Shikamaru was right about him being too hasty. It wasn't like him to accept a case so complicated this easily.

"Yeah, I remember. But, you know, sometimes in life you get opportunities you can't pass. This is one of those, I literally can't pass it. I just have this…feeling", Naruto tried to reason.

Shikamaru smiled. Naruto had always been like this and partly that was the reason Shikamaru was so fond of him. He had a cold, stoic side to him that he showed to people. But he also had a childlike side, and even though it now was mostly hidden, it still made him listen to his heart. Shikamaru doubted Naruto was aware of it himself.

"That's exactly why I'm not even trying to talk you out of it", he said with a kind smile.

Naruto returned the smile.

"Thanks, Shika", Naruto said and stood up.

"I've gotta go, I need to pick up some papers and call Sasuke"

"Yeah, no problem", Shikamaru assured.

He stood up too and patted Naruto on the shoulder. Naruto chuckled and pulled the other man into a rough hug, who let out a displeased grunt.

"Don't be such a hardass, just give a hug", Naruto said.

With a huff Shikamaru returned the hug.

"Don't worry about me. Love ya, dude", Naruto said and smirked.

The other man nodded with a smile on his face and with that, Naruto left the room. Once he'd recovered some necessary documents from his workroom, he decided to call Sasuke. He dialed the familiar number and waited for an answer.

"Hey, moron."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the voice on the line.

"Yeah, love you too. I'm back", he said.

"Ok. How'd it go?" Sasuke wanted to know.

"Well, I accepted", Naruto told him.

"Hn."

Naruto snorted.

"Your reactions are ridiculously nonexistent."

Sasuke chuckled.

"Yeah, you've told me that. Got time to meet up?" he asked.

Naruto checked his watch. It was two pm.

"Well, I'm back just for today; I've still got to fly back this evening. But, I guess I can spare a while", Naruto said.

"Okay, great. Oh, I'm getting another call, I've gotta go", Sasuke told.

"Right. The Place?"

"Yeah."

A half an hour later they'd both arrived as promised. The Place was not only a great bar, but also a terrific restaurant. Neither of them had eaten lunch, so they decided to do something about it. While waiting for food to arrive, Sasuke wanted to know more about the meeting in Fuchu.

"So, you accepted?"

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, I did."

Sasuke looked thoughtful and…tense.

"Can you really handle it?" he had to ask.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"You should know better than to ask such stupid questions", was his answer.

Sasuke bit his lower lip.

"I am perfectly aware that you are good at your job. It just feels like…you're making this personal."

"You sound like Shika. How would you even know how I'm handling this?" Naruto asked slightly offended.

"Kakashi called me", Sasuke revealed.

Naruto tilted his head.

"What the hell? Why?"

"I told you; he sees through people. You're too obvious."

Naruto grunted.

"Well he didn't see through Gaara."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow.

"You call him by his first name? You never do that."

Naruto was getting frustrated. What was it with people sticking their noses into business that didn't concern them?

"Don't read into it. It doesn't mean shit", Naruto snapped.

Sasuke didn't say anything, just kind of looked worried, which obviously wasn't like him.

"Yes it does, you don't do that normally. It's too personal", his friend said still worried.

Naruto snorted and shook his head.

"When I said your reactions are nonexistent, I didn't mean it was a bad thing", he continued referring to the man's expression.

The worried look on Sasuke's face faded away and was replaced with anger.

"Fucking moron, listen to me", he said.

With the tone Sasuke's voice held, Naruto knew he had no choice.

"We've been friends for twenty _fucking_ years. You should know better than to lie to my face. You know that you're like a brother to me and there's no fucking way I'm letting you ignore my worry. You are perfectly aware I don't show this side to a_nybody _else on this shitty planet and you are _not_ ignoring this!"

Naruto froze at the raised voice. People around them had turned to look. What the hell was happening? Naruto struggled to get words out.

"I…What-", Naruto tried, but was interrupted.

"No, shut up. Since the moment you came to me about the case, I knew it was a horrible idea. Something in your eyes had changed as soon as you got your hands on this. I know you inside and out and trust me, you're doing this for the wrong reasons", Sasuke told him, the anger not fading away.

Naruto looked around him and started to feel embarrassed by the attention they were getting.

"Have you lost your mind? We're in public, idiot", he whispered in irritation.

Sasuke's mood didn't seem to be affected by his notion. He stood up, making even more noise.

"I. Don't. Care. Why can't you see it yourself? You accepted the challenge of a mass murderer!"

Naruto's bafflement was gone and was now way beyond irritation.

"Shikamaru called you?"

Sasuke's gaze lowered just a bit.

"Yeah, he did."

Naruto felt betrayed. Even though he knew neither of them wanted any harm, he felt so betrayed. They had no right. He was the one to make the decision, without being questioned. Naruto too stood up.

"You know what? Fuck you", Naruto said, no longer caring about the eyes watching them.

The whole room was silent. A waiter walked up to them with a stern look on his face.

"Sir, we need you to leave. Both of you", the waiter said with a low voice.

Naruto didn't tear away his gaze from Sasuke.

"Don't worry. I was on my way out already", Naruto said, not sparing a glance to the waiter.

Naruto turned and walked out of the restaurant. He was mad as hell. He might've been overreacting, but he wouldn't let anybody criticize the way he handled his job, the only thing he truly was proud of. Not even Sasuke.

A strangling feeling in his chest forced him to loosen his tie.

"Naruto!"

Naruto stopped in his tracks and turned around to meet the man calling for him.

"What?! What the hell do you want?" Naruto asked in a strongly raised voice.

Apparently, that collected a few wondering eyes.

"Don't walk away from me. I deserve more than that"

Naruto gritted his teeth. He was right, but Naruto wasn't in the mood for more.

"I don't have the energy to go through this now. Life is shitty at home, life seems to be shitty with friends and according to you it will be shitty at work too. I really don't have any obligation to explain myself to you."

Sasuke looked hurt. Naruto was well aware his words cut deep, but so had Sasuke's. Naruto had nothing more to say, so he turned to continue his walk away. After just a few steps, he was pushed against a hard, cold surface. More accurately; the wall next to him. The impact was hard enough to bruise his left cheek.

"What the fu-"

"Shut up."

If this didn't gather an audience, it'd be a miracle.

"I'm seriously gonna beat the shit out of you", Naruto growled.

He would've easily been a match for Sasuke, but he wanted to avoid it.

"No, you're not", Sasuke declared and forcefully turned him around.

He then let go of Naruto.

"What are you doing?" Naruto demanded to know.

To his surprise, and quite possibly for everyone staring at the scene, Sasuke pulled off his shirt revealing his tattoo covered body. What was it with men wanting to undress themselves for him?

"What are you _doing_? Put it back on!" Naruto hissed and glanced around.

He didn't.

"Look at these", Sasuke said and spread out his arms to give a better view of the pictures covering his skin.

He then forcefully yanked up the helm of Naruto's shirt to reveal a similar view.

"These are the reason why you _are_ obligated to give me an explanation", Sasuke said his jaw clenching.

Naruto just stared into his furious eyes. He didn't know how to respond.

"We've been through everything together. I fucking love you and I know you do too, so don't fucking do this to me."

Naruto felt a stab in the heart.

"Just stop it. What do you want?" Naruto asked refusing to look him in the eyes.

"I just want you to talk to me. You stopped doing that fucking years ago. Do you know how bad it hurts that you've been pushing me away since you married that pink haired bimbo?" Sasuke said obviously pained.

Naruto felt his anger build up again.

"Don't you fucking dare to speak of her like that", he hissed.

They were both silent for a moment.

"I don't need blood to bond us; you're my brother. I don't want to lose you. I can't even remember the last time you were truly yourself. Just fucking talk to me", Sasuke pleaded and grabbed Naruto by the arm.

Naruto was torn. Half of him wanted to embrace his friend, the other one to punch him lifeless. To avoid the latter, he had to get away.

"I have a plane to catch", Naruto said and tore away from Sasuke's grip.

Shutting down any sympathy he felt for the other man, Naruto walked away, not looking back.

* * *

><p>A few hours later Naruto was sitting on his flight back to Fuchu. He couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke. It wasn't like him to express feelings, especially not the kind he'd seen earlier. It hurt to know that his friend was in pain because of him. But it hurt even more that he was right. They'd grown apart. Naruto hadn't noticed. Did that make him a bad person? Maybe he'd always been. Neither him or Sasuke had untainted souls. Nobody did, but some souls had dirt that couldn't be washed away. And both of them had been soaked in it. Perhaps Naruto moving further away from Sasuke had been a pitiful attempt of ridding himself of the past. He'd never be rid of it. He was pathetic to even hope so.<p>

Naruto sighed. He was a mess. The life he'd worked so hard to attain seemed to be falling apart. It would crumble, no matter what. And he now was afraid he'd burned bridges that couldn't be replaced.

It seemed impossible to get the case presentation done with his thoughts tormenting him. He'd made some progress though. He'd built the defense around the new evidence and the witness' recently revealed unreliability. The yakuza link couldn't be used since it only would've been shot down immediately. Naruto would have to build a defense so strong that Akatsuki wouldn't be able to accuse Gaara anymore without risking their cover. Right now the evidence wasn't heavy enough for him to be capable of it. He knew Gaara held massive amounts of unrevealed information that would help him make a case strong enough. His challenge now was to make the man talk. Naruto would have to earn a form of trust and he was aware it would suck him in deeper into the obsession he'd formed. In just a few hours he'd have to be in court defending the man that seemed to impact his life more than was necessary.

It'd better be worth it.


	6. Masochistic Tendencies

**Thanks for all the reviews! Keep them coming. I'm updating at a good speed it seems. Future chapters will take a bit more time as I intend to make them longer. I finally got around to name the chapters, too. Anyway, here's chapter six for you.**

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><p>It was an unusually cold day. The wind was icy and felt piercing on Naruto's skin. He looked at the building in front of him. The courthouse. It looked intimidating in it's cold glory. Naruto wanted to feel nervous, but instead pushed the feeling away. To perform flawlessly, he'd have to rid himself of any distractions. Naruto knew this was the moment he'd waited for a long time. He'd made a revelation the night before. Never again would he come across a case so challenging. This was his chance to push himself to the edge. It would take everything he had to win this case and he was ecstatic about it. All he ever wanted to do ever since he got out of the streets was to use his intelligence in ways that gave him a feel of superiority. Not in an arrogant way, in a way that proved him he was worthy of the title genius he'd attained.<p>

Naruto's hands clenched into fists as he walked through the entrance of the building. The lobby was grand. Marble floors, tall pillars and a beautifully gold-plated ceiling. The interior design of the building felt a bit too polished for the horrors that were seen inside those luxurious cherry wood walls. Tearing his gaze away from the beautiful architecture, Naruto made his way up to the second floor. There he met familiar faces. Unpleasantly familiar. Naruto hoped from the bottom of his heart that the man in front of him, Hyuuga Neji, was not the prosecution's attorney. Naruto was familiar with Hyuuga from law school and on top of that he was the cousin of his secretary, Hinata. Naruto hadn't gotten along with him in school and was quite sure it hadn't changed one bit. The man was quite self centered with an ego too big for his own good. He being a prick wasn't the biggest issue; Hyuuga was also a brilliant attorney and a close match to Naruto. Going against him in court was not something to be taken lightly.

Nervousness started to push its way through again, but skillfully Naruto killed the feeling immediately. He walked up to the small crowd waiting outside the courtroom. Hyuuga turned around.

"Uzumaki", Neji stated coldly, but politely bowed.

"Hyuuga", Naruto responded and bowed too.

Neither of them said more. It wasn't really necessary. Also, Naruto didn't want to reveal he'd forgotten to read about the prosecution. At times he certainly doubted the brilliant intelligence he supposedly obtained.

Naruto checked the time. He'd arrived a few minutes early. The waiting made him even more anxious. He was nervous about how well he'd be able to keep his control. Finding out that Hyuuga was going to be his opponent didn't help the matter. But Naruto also knew this was his chance to shine and he'd definitely make the best of it.

A pair of large doors behind him creaked open.

"You are aloud to enter", a young lady, most likely a paralegal, stated.

Those in the hallway made their way inside. Everybody took their rightful places. Naruto sat in the front and Hyuuga took a seat at the table next to his. Naruto glanced at his competition. Hyuuga sat alone at the table. It seemed that the injured party sat in the back. The re-opening was requested by several people after all. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the people behind him. The injured party had been labelled as 'family', but he was able to tell right away these people were no such thing. Blood lusting criminals every single one of them. Covered in yakuza tattoos, most of them. Naruto shook his head at the irony of it. A court room full of yakuzas, as the injured party. This system was rotten to the core. Rotten to the extent where criminals didn't even have to make an effort to keep their intentions hidden. The system did that for them. But they did have to be in quite deep shit to go this far for just one guy. Even if they were practically invisible to the law, it was a risk to be doing this. Gaara had to be dangerous, for them at least.

A door creaked open. Naruto's breath hitched once again. Why couldn't he stop it from happening?

The whole room watched Gaara being led by guards. He was seated down next to Naruto and then chained to the table. It took a few controlled breaths before Naruto was able to look at the man beside him. As soon as he turned to look, he got sucked in by the green color of the man's eyes. Just like last time, his heart skipped a beat. He had to fight to keep his concentration.

"How are you feeling?" Naruto asked hiding the nervousness.

Gaara watched him silently before answering.

"I'm fine"

Naruto had forgotten how low the man's voice was.

"Good. 'Cause this won't be easy", Naruto told.

"Easy ain't fun"

Naruto's eyes narrowed. Those words irked him.

"Fun or not, that is Hyuuga Neji. After me, he's the next best thing", Naruto said trying to explain the situation and pointed at the man on his left.

Gaara didn't have to look the pointed way to answer.

"I know"

There was something about Gaara's tone that made Naruto twitch in both disgust and appeal.

"Right. I've built the defense around the new evidence. On top of that, the witness is no longer as reliable. We can use that", Naruto continued his explanation.

Gaara nodded.

"Questions?" Naruto asked and flipped through some documents he'd taken out. He was too anxious to actually read anything.

There was no answer right away.

"You found out about yakuza, didn't you?"

Naruto turned to look at the other man, not responding. Naruto knew Gaara was exceptional, but how could he know?

"I knew you would", Gaara said and lifted the corner of his lips.

Naruto refused to react. He didn't want to give him the pleasure. And since Gaara already knew, it wasn't necessary.

The room got silent as another door opened. The judge, a man in his mid-forties, stepped into the room and then walked to his stand. He took a quick glance through a file handed to him and then cleared his throat indicating the beginning of the hearing.

"Since this is just a hearing, you most likely won't have to say a word. Let's keep it that way", Naruto whispered and felt a kind of satisfaction of Gaara narrowing his eyes.

A bang of the judge's gavel echoed through the room.

"Order and silence is required in the court room. We are now going to hold the hearing of a first degree murder case, defendant; Sabaku Gaara. This hearing is for estimating the need for re-trial. First I am requesting for the prosecution to speak", the judge voiced.

Hyuuga stood up and walked up to the front. He took out his notes and started his speech.

"In the case of Sabaku Gaara, the prosecution is demanding a hardening of the sentence given in 2007 and is now filing for capital sentence", Hyuuga spoke.

Naruto turned to glance at Gaara. Blank as always. The prosecutor's words had no effect on him.

"Since the defendant is now demanding a re-trial, prosecution will make it clear that there is no need for such. The original sentence was based on the fact that there was actual physical evidence of Sabaku being at the crime scene. On top of that, there is a witness who has detailed information of the events. The witness, Sarutobi Konohamaru, has identified Sabaku as the killer. Also the defendant's way of hiding his past gives a strong impression of criminal habits. The defendant has pleaded not guilty, but has no way of explaining the evidence found on the scene. These factors make it clear that the original sentence was rightfully made and the demanding for capital punishment is justified", Hyuuga said and lowered his notes indicating he was done for now.

"No questions. Thank you", the judge stated and instructed Hyuuga to take his seat.

"I am now requesting for the defense to speak up", the judge continued.

Naruto stood up and glanced over his shoulder. The people sitting behind him looked as cold and expressionless as Gaara. The similarities in them made Naruto wonder if it was something of relevance.

Naruto tore away his gaze and walked forward. He decided on not taking out notes and proceeded to present his defense.

"The prosecution is telling that there is no need for a re-trial. We are strongly opposing this claim, as it is obvious there are major flaws in the charges. Also, the demands for capital punishment are groundless. The original sentence was based on physical evidence that was found on the scene. As it has been proven, the gun that the defendant's fingerprint was found on, was registered to the defendant, but had been reported stolen. This should make the gun an invalid piece of evidence. And what comes to the witness, it is clear that he is no longer reliable as he'd hidden important evidence. His motives for those actions are unknown and his words cannot be taken into serious consideration. Also, the defense believes that a mental examination of the witness is needed in order for him to be viewed as stable enough to partake. On subject of the defendant's "missing" years; it is obviously unusual, but there is no evidence supporting criminal affiliations", Naruto finished his speech and returned to his seat as instructed by the judge.

"Prosecution, do you wish to continue?" the judge asked.

Hyuuga nodded and stood up once more.

"The defense seems to believe that the gun that provided a fingerprint should not be used as evidence, since it was stolen. This is not a valid claim as the report of a stolen weapon was never made in the defendant's true name. Reporting it under an alias is not credible. Also, if the murders were planned, why not report the gun stolen to make sure it wouldn't be used against the defendant?" Hyuuga implied.

Naruto's jaw clenched. The point Hyuuga had brought up would be hard to knock down. The gun might've truly been reported stolen just for show and right now there was no way of proving otherwise.

"Unlike the defense seems to think, the witness' reliability hasn't suffered to the extent they want to believe. The witness will go through psychological screening to prove that reliability", Hyuuga protested.

The judge nodded and signed him to take his seat.

"Defense, do you wish to continue?" was the judge's question.

"Yes, please", Naruto answered and stood up again.

"The reporting of the stolen gun under an alias shouldn't be an issue. The alias has been proven to have belonged to my client and thus is a valid point to make the gun's use as evidence unjustified. If the prosecution suspects an unnecessary report of stolen property, they should dedicate a separate investigation for it. As long as it can't be proven, there is no need to assume so. Also, why would the defendant have left the weapon on the scene I it truly was used by him? The defense also strongly believes the witness is no longer a reliable source. The ax the witness was hiding contained important evidence, which has to be taken into consideration. An unidentified fingerprint can't be ignored", Naruto spoke.

The judge seemed thoughtful.

"I naturally have gone through the details, but I need you to verify that the print found on the ax is the unidentified one, correct?", he questioned.

"Yes, your honor", Naruto confirmed.

The judge scribbled a few words on a piece of paper.

"I see. Does the prosecution have something to add?"

"No. Not at the moment", Hyuuga answered with a slightly dark face.

Naruto felt pleased. Hyuuga had come to the hearing knowing that a re-trial would be inevitable. There was no way for him to knock down the fact that there was a possible third party involved.

The re-trial was almost sure, but it didn't mean winning it would be the same.

The judge stood up and gave a bang with his gavel.

"I will retreat to make a decision. Nobody is to leave until the decision is made", the judge said and then walked out of the courtroom.

Low mumbling filled the room. Naruto turned to look at Gaara. As expected, the man's face lacked all expression, as usual. It irked Naruto to be incapable of figuring out his thoughts.

"We'll make it. To re-trial, at least", Naruto said.

Gaara nodded. He seemed pleased, somehow. Naruto just watched him silently, only to be watched back. He wanted Gaara to say something.

"You really aren't a man of many words, are you?" Naruto sneered.

Gaara's face stayed blank and no words were spoken. A hopeless case, he was. Naruto huffed and turned away from the other man. He found the redhead's actions, or perhaps the lack of them, irritating. Now that he thought about it, he found nearly everything about Gaara irritating. His intense stare, that unnaturally low voice and the lack of expression, that especially. So why was he so keen on getting him out of jail? Why was it becoming an obsession to find out what lied beneath the surface? Every now and then Naruto thought he'd caught a glimpse of...something in the eyes of the redhead. Whenever that happened, Naruto wanted to hold on to the slim chance of seeing behind the hollowness of those poisonous orbs. He was getting hooked on the irritation Gaara was able to lure out. It gave him the need to overcome it.

Naruto was startled by a soft touch. There was a cold breath next to his ear. A pair of blood red lips touched his skin as they let out whispered words.

"Only those deserving will hear the words I have to say"

Naruto shivered so violently, the other man had to have noticed. The smug smirk on his face made it obvious he had and was seemingly pleased by the way he'd made Naruto react. Naruto felt his irritation rise again. Every time Gaara was able to force out the humanity in Naruto, he felt the need of getting under the redhead's skin grow. He knew Gaara was testing him, he knew it, but still couldn't stop the odd reactions.

Naruto swallowed nervously, but then forced all panic away.

"I advise you to not make any physical contact. You might get thrown out from the hearing", Naruto stated coldly.

Gaara tilted his head.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" he asked in a mocking tone.

Naruto gritted his teeth.

"You couldn't possibly be capable of that", Naruto said.

He knew it was a bold lie and so did Gaara. Naruto was furious at himself. He'd failed miserably when it came to controlling his actions. He felt weak and pitiful. He wasn't used to it. But he knew it was just another challenge. He'd be able to overcome it.

"You must be slightly masochistic to have accepted this case", Gaara continued his provoking way of speaking.

Naruto shot a piercing glare at the redhead. He was on his way beyond irritation.

"As must you, offering me this position. You are well aware that I will rip your cover into pieces. And you can't wait for it to happen", Naruto growled.

A flash of surprise could be seen in Gaara's eyes. He seemed taken aback by Naruto's boldness. Naruto made it clear that he enjoyed the man's surprise as much as he had Naruto's.

They had no further exchange of words and waited quietly for the judge to return. After a minute or two the man entered to the room again.

"A decision has been made", the judge spoke.

Naruto was anxious to find out the verdict.

"All elements of the case have to be clear before proceeding. For that reason, the witness will be sent to a psychological profiler. Another hearing will be held after the results come in", the judge declared and a banged the gavel.

Naruto was surprised. He hadn't expected another hearing. It seemed unusual. But it wasn't a bad call. This would give them more time to strengthen the defense.

"You will now be taken back to Fuchu Prison. I've arranged us to meet in an hour. I'll see you there", Naruto told Gaara, not sparing a glance.

Not responding, Gaara stood up and let the guards take him away.

Naruto couldn't stop himself from watching the man walk away. He still felt overwhelmed by Gaara's presence. As soon as the man disappeared from his view, it became possible to breathe again.

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><p>Here he was again. In the same depressing room, with the same depressing walls and depressing emptiness. Sitting in the same uncomfortable chair, waiting for his client to show up. Jiraiya hadn't been there today. He had a day off, it seemed. It was Thursday, nearing the weekend, but Naruto had a feeling he was in no position to be dreaming of a day off. Not with this load of work. If everything went according to plan, the second hearing would be held on Monday, maybe Tuesday. Naruto couldn't wait to hear the final verdict. He was confident that a re-trial would be held, but there was no way to be absolutely sure. He knew he wouldn't be able to relax before the the final decision, so a day off would go to waste anyway.<p>

A familiar click of the door on his left was heard. The door opened to reveal a face he'd parted from just an hour before. Naruto's breath almost got stuck again, but this time he forced himself to keep it even. Gaara took a seat across him, just like last time. Once again, he was chained to the table. The guards then left the room, leaving them alone. Not that Naruto noticed it this time either. Something odd happened. Somehow he had completely forgotten what to say. Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose trying to gain his focus.

"Shit", he said out loud.

Gaara grunted.

"Get a hold of yourself", was his solution.

Naruto was irritated, once again. Why did he let the man speak to him in such a way? And more importantly, why did he let it bother? He was used to locked up psychopaths mumbling offensive shit, but was trained to ignore it. Something about Gaara twisted his perspective.

"My patience with you is running out. You have to give me something", Naruto huffed.

Gaara seemed disappointed.

"I didn't expect you to give so easily", he said bluntly.

Naruto battled to keep his calm.

"As much as I enjoy your little game, you will be rotting in death row if you don't open up. Even I can't make miracles happen", Naruto hissed through his gritted teeth.

"You're my miracle", Gaara answered in a heartbeat.

That made Naruto twitch. How exactly was he supposed to interpret that?

"I'm not even gonna ask", Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes.

They were silent for a while. His miracle, huh? Naruto was a bit too taken aback by that comment. Gaara seemed to not notice.

"You have to make sure the re-trial happens", Gaara said sternly.

Naruto looked up to meet his gaze. His irritation faded as soon as their eyes met. Naruto did not know how or why, but the green eyes staring into his blue ones told very clearly that he couldn't help. Not now. There were things that couldn't be said out loud. This revelation made Naruto once again ponder if he really was ready to trample his morals even lower. His job was to free his clients of all charges, no matter what. But if this really was becoming more than just work, it would affect his personal values as well. Would he come to regret something?

Naruto sighed, again.

"Fine"

He was ready to take his leave, but was stopped by a rattling of chains. It appeared that the chains gave way more than he'd expected. A hand was holding his. It took Naruto a while to understand what was happening. When the realization hit him, his knees went weak.

Naruto looked down to see the hand touching him.

"You know…I have this magic button here that will send a shitload of guards in seconds to take you away", Naruto stated bluntly.

Gaara smirked.

"Yeah, but you won't do it, will you?"

Oh, fuck him and that low voice of his.

"You really wanna push your luck?" Naruto asked trying to hide the strange feeling dwelling up inside.

"I don't believe in luck", was the answer.

A heavy silence surrounded them.

"What do you want?" Naruto said breaking the tension.

He glanced at the pale hand again. It was cold.

Naruto could've easily yanked himself free, but didn't. Why, he didn't know.

"You to realize why you're not trying to break free", Gaara said in an oddly calm voice.

A moment after those words Naruto pulled his hand away. Not as violently as he'd planned, though.

"I'll come back tomorrow", Naruto told and turned to leave.

He didn't have to look back to know that the other man's lips were decorated with a smug smirk.

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><p>A couple of hours later Naruto sat in his hotel room. He was beyond exhaustion. He stood up and walked to a full length mirror. The sight could only be described as depressing. Dark circles around the eyes, the usually sun kissed color of his skin now an anemic pale one. He wasn't one to handle stress very well. At least not to this extent. His way of life had been taking its toll on him for several years. But at the same time it was like a drug. He couldn't stop. He didn't want to stop. It was all he had. He was hooked on the feeling of winning a case. Year after year that rush defeated the fatigue. At times he wondered when it no longer would. He'd never been a drug user, but had a hunch that his way of life was dangerously close to that of a heroin addict. The chase of a high ends up tearing one's psyche and physique. Perhaps this addiction of his was even worse than that of an junkie. They usually got put out of their misery soon enough. His addiction seemed to drag out infinitely.<p>

Suddenly, an image of Sasuke flashed in his mind.

"Shit", Naruto mumbled.

He'd really screwed up. He knew it, but couldn't bring himself to call and apologize. He was too much of a stubborn prick for that. He hadn't changed his mind about Sasuke's meddling being uncalled for. He was afraid he'd lose the only one he'd ever truly cared for, but at the same time was too selfish to admit to being wrong.

Naruto didn't want to dwell in his self pity any longer. Instead, he took out his laptop. He decided it would be best to write down his thoughts. To get them out of his system. About the case, about everything.

It took him a while to figure out how to start.

He concluded it was best not to overthink it.

"_This memo will be written of a personal point of view. This won't be used in any court action._

_I am tired. I am being torn into shreds. By myself, mostly, but there is someone else, too. _

_Sabaku Gaara is a client of mine. Gaara is a convicted murderer. He has shot, stabbed and dismembered seven human beings. At least so it has been declared, for now. It is my job to make sure those accusations are proven to be groundless. I am good at my job, I truly am. But this time…it's not enough. This time everything is different. Sabaku Gaara has succeeded in something nobody has. Not even my dear wife. That man has surpassed my own wife in making me emotionally unstable. _

_He touched me today. He took my hand. It wasn't violent, it wasn't unpleasant. But it scared me. It scared me to realize, I wasn't trying to break free. I could try to excuse my lack of action with the element of surprise, but it would be just that; an excuse. There is something about this man that makes me shiver and twitch. Makes my heart skip a beat. And I have no idea why. Am I frightened by him? _

_It is not only these few days I've acknowledged Gaara's existence that are breaking me down. My life has been dangerously near of collapsing for a few years now. Somehow even the years on the other side of law felt more safe than what I'm now desperately trying to hold together. I love my wife. But I am no longer in love. I am attached to her. I am fond of her. I still want to make things okay, I do. I'm just not sure I can. Is it even possible to fall for one person twice? The way Gaara is affecting me has been making it hard for me to concentrate on the relationship with my wife. Somehow the last few days has made me wonder if I've just been hiding behind a pretty picture. It has made me believe that there is so much more, so much I should be doing. _

_I have doubts about myself. For the first time ever, I am doubting myself as an attorney. As a human being. I am baffled by this case, by this client. I am almost sure Gaara is anything but innocent. But for some reason, I don't mind. Why? Why do I not care that he quite possibly cut seven people into pieces? Why is getting him out all I can think about? I hate him, but at the same time I don't. I am disgusted by him and I am drawn to him. I'm confused."_

The more Naruto wrote, the more he realized that Sasuke had been so right. Shikamaru too. In a way he'd known it from start. But admitting it had been too much for his pride as a professional.

"_As I write this, I find myself discovering new ways of thinking. Both good and bad. I guess it's a good thing I still am able to tell the difference between those two. I am discovering the bright angles of the dark side. I can feel myself being sucked back into that endless void of the true nature of humans. But I don't find it detestable. I find it…interesting. I should probably be worried, maybe scared. But no. I just can't bring myself to feel that way._

_I now have a few hours to put together a defense so perfect nothing can cut through it. Gaara won't help me. Can't help me. That tells a story, doesn't it? He called me his miracle. I now feel pressure to be just that. Am I going to be able to live up to that title? I guess I am. He was so sure of it. I would have to."_

Naruto felt he was done with processing his thoughts. He saved the document and closed the laptop. He wasn't sure why he'd saved it. Perhaps he wanted to make sure those thoughts wouldn't get lost. This way they'd be safe.

Naruto collapsed onto the bed. He watched the ceiling. It was a boring color of white. That dull color seemed to symbolize his current life very well. He was fed up with what he'd ended up with. He'd gotten everything he'd dreamed of, but now realized it was dangerous to dream.

You just might get what you want. And then end up not liking it at all.

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><p><strong>I'd like to make it clear that this fic will get darker as it goes on. No angst, but other dark themes. It won't get extravagantly depressing 'cause that's just plain boring. Just wanted to make it clear in case somebody was hoping for any overly positive story telling. I'll save that for another day ;)<strong>


	7. Survival Instinct: None

**I have a new chapter for you~ It took some time to get it done ( I've been busy as hell), but now it's here. So, take a look.**

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><p><em>Naruto stands outside. The night sky is painted with ominous colors. Red, orange, yellow. White and blue, too. Even from this distance, the heat stings. It is too bright to keep one's eyes wide open. So, he squints. <em>

_The smell of burning flesh fills the air. Screams of agony reach his ears. They are loud, but distant. He doesn't get affected by them. _

_There is a building in front of him. Windows shatter, wood splits. It burns so fast. _

_The stench of gasoline is piercing, but somehow, it is the best smell in the world. It is unlike anything else. _

_The view is disturbing, but Naruto is calm. He is collected. He is everything he needs to be. Everything he wants to be. He is in control. That's what it's all about, isn't it? Power. He doesn't want to let go of the feeling. It is intoxicating. Sick and twisted, but so intoxicating. _

_The screams grow louder. It starts to irritate him._

_He wants silence. Darkness. _

_His calmness is drifting away. He starts to fidget. The noise is too loud. The flames are too bright. He suddenly no longer knows where he is or why. _

_There is fire, why? _

_There is pain and death. Why? _

_He starts to panic. The screams are now unbearable. He can no longer breathe. His legs give out and he collapses onto his knees. He has to cover his ears to block out the screams. It doesn't work; the screams are inside his head._

_Slowly the lights and colors fade away. His mind is giving up. He isn't far from unconsciousness. He is ready to give in. _

_Suddenly, it's quiet._

_He slowly opens his eyes. There is no fire, no heat. No colors anymore. It is dark. The only thing left is the smell of burning flesh._

_It is so quiet now. Too quiet. His panic won't go away. The silence makes it worse. He is all alone now. It frightens him. It frightens him to be alone._

_But then, he wakes up._

Naruto's eyes shot wide open. Sweat dripped down his forehead. He couldn't stop trembling. It hurt to breathe. Every breath he took shot pain through his chest. He was afraid to blink. He didn't want to fall back into the dream he'd been able to escape. He hadn't felt panic like this in ages.

Naruto hastily turned his head towards the nightstand to check the time. It was 4:45 am. It was morning. Naruto sighed, finally catching his breath. He shook his head and flung his feet to the floor. It was early, but he wouldn't go back to sleep. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a dream that…suffocating. He wasn't one to have nightmares. He wasn't really sure if it'd been one.

Naruto stood up and walked into the bathroom. He washed the sweat off his face and stopped to stare at his reflection in the mirror. What he saw was as much of a mess as it'd been for a while now. It made him angry. He felt weak and useless. He was nearing the point of self-pitying and that made him even angrier. To stop himself from getting any more unstable, he turned around and walked away from the mirror. He drank up a glass of water and then sat down onto an armchair placed next to the window. He creaked the window open, breathing in the cold morning air. It felt good, cleansing. After a couple of deep breaths, he lit a cigarette. It tasted better than ever.

Naruto felt calm enough to think about the dream he'd had. He was still taken aback by it. It'd been too real to be forgotten. The colors, the heat, the smells…he'd sensed them like they'd really been there. The stench of gasoline still seemed to linger around him.

Naruto took another drag from his cigarette.

He was confused as of why his dream had seemed so lifelike. Waking up had been like a slap across the face. For a second there, reality had gotten mixed with something else. It was sort of unnerving. Naruto couldn't recall ever experiencing anything alike. Not even when he'd been playing around with drugs back in the day.

The confused state the dream had left him in made Naruto consider how well exactly his mental stability was doing. He wasn't crazy, he wasn't sick in the head, but he was…tired. So tired. He could've slept for a week and still be exhausted. But as long as Naruto didn't know what exactly the problem was, he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. Sure he knew that his challenging marriage, the long days on the job and the past he could never run away from were all things that would eat one's sanity, but still had no clue as of what to do. Somehow he was drifting. Drifting away from everything, yet never ending up anywhere else.

Naruto shook his head, chuckled out loud and took a few more drags.

He was acting stupid. He was worrying for no real reason. If life had taught him anything, it was that everything is temporary. All good, all bad, just temporary. Nothing lasts forever. Neither would this. One day he'd wake up and realize that life is good. Even if it were just for a while.

He took one last drag and then put the cigarette out. He glanced outside. His hotel room was quite high up, giving him a beautiful view of the city. The skyline was still dim, but a few rays of sunlight were stretching out behind the buildings. Naruto could see miles ahead. Including Fuchu prison. It reminded him of the man he'd have to meet again. Naruto remained confused when it came to the redhead. Their slightly unpleasant, yet intriguing confrontations seemed to be a subject Naruto was unable to form an opinion on. To be honest, Gaara himself seemed to be a subject he couldn't form an opinion on. Truthfully there was no need for him to have one. Professionally speaking. But for some reason, his mind wouldn't let it go.

Naruto decided he'd had enough time to think about things he wouldn't be able to answer anyway and closed the window. He got up, put on clothes to keep him warm and then headed out. As soon as he stepped onto the sidewalk, he picked up the pace. He concluded it'd been too long since his last workout and decided to jog to the nearest gym.

Three hours later Naruto was dripping with sweat, aching in places he couldn't remember existed and more out of breath than he'd expected. It'd only been three weeks since his last trip to the gym, but obviously it was enough to get him near coma. He had to admit, compared to what he used to give to working out, the last six months had been seriously lazy. It was no accident he was in great shape, but he seemed to have forgotten it actually needed some work. Once again Naruto blamed his job on this one too. His career took up all his time and energy. And even then, he couldn't live without it.

Naruto stepped out to the streets again, only to remember he'd have to run back to the hotel. The entire way back he wanted to collapse onto the sidewalk, but somehow managed to keep going. He would absolutely have to pull himself together and get back into the enviable shape he'd always been in.

After what felt like ages, he arrived at the hotel. He quickly made his way up to his room and jumped into the shower. He showered off all possible stickiness the torture he'd put himself through had produced and then dried himself off. He once again took a look of his own image in the mirror next to him. It seemed that the shower didn't help much. He didn't look any more refreshed than before. And the longer he watched the reflection, the better he understood why his physique was so shitty. He'd lost weight. Quite dramatically, actually. And when you are a person with a body fat percentage that's pretty much next to nothing, it's not good. He wasn't scrawny, he was still enviably fit, but the ridiculous muscle power he was used to carry around wasn't exactly in its former glory. Naruto hadn't even noticed. Not really.

It was unnecessary to stare at the more or less pathetic reflection, so he looked away and put on a pair of boxers. He then pulled on a wife beater and a pair of sweats. With a cup of fresh coffee Naruto sat down on the edge of his bed. He took out the case files to go through them once again. He would have to find something before leaving to meet Gaara.

For a second, Naruto thought back to the day before.

"_You're my miracle"_

The words gave him chills even now. It was just another one of Gaara's games, no doubt. But fuck, that guy knew how to get into Naruto's head. And that was his problem exactly. If Naruto was able to make out something new of the info he had, it would bring him one step closer to the Gaara behind the mind games. Closer to every little secret that man had to hide. If he was able to understand even a fraction of that creature's mind, it'd be not just a personal victory, but something to use against his desire to play with Naruto's mind.

Naruto stopped his thought. His mind seemed to wander a bit more on the 'fucking crazy person' section than needed. Naruto pressed his face into his palms and let out a long, tired sigh. Naruto wanted to blame his messy head on his years' worth of sleep deprivation, but it seemed a bit desperate.

Naruto slightly parted his fingers to see the file laid out on the bed. The gruesome pictures of the scene were scattered around the bed. Naruto just watched them from behind his hands. He had to find something. Anything. Even the smallest, shittiest thing would give him some extra energy to keep himself motivated and concentrated. Naruto had a bad habit of losing his focus when things didn't go as planned. This was one of those times. Everything was just stuck. His head was overused nearing the point of exploding. He couldn't get any information from Gaara and the investigation itself, or at least the files, were ridiculously scattered and vague. The whole damn corrupted case was so deeply soaked in blood, it was impossible to see behind the lies. Spilled blood always stains the truth with its horror. And this time, there'd been loads of it.

Suddenly something changed in his train of thought. He pulled his face away from his palms and picked up a couple of photos.

'_Spilled blood always stains the truth'_

Blue eyes shifted between the pictures. From a far, every single picture with a full view of the room looked like a photographed pool of blood with a few humanlike lumps. On closer inspection it still looked like a photographed pool of blood with lumps. That exact point made Naruto realize that no matter how long he stared at those pictures, he wouldn't be able to make out details. The blood had covered literally everything. He took a look at the pictures taken after cleanup. The messiness of the scene had made it impossible to recover the room completely. Dismembering seven people, in a room able to fit just about that amount, couldn't be done neatly. But along with the cleaning, something might've gone unnoticed.

An idea formed in his head. Naruto jumped out of bed, ran out of the room and down to the lobby. With some persuasion he got the woman behind the counter to lend a scanner for him to use. With a small struggle he was able to carry the heavy equipment back to his room and hastily he plugged it in. With the scanner and his laptop ready for use, he scanned all the pictures of the bloody scene. The process took longer than he'd hoped for, but in a few minutes the pictures got transferred onto the screen of his computer. Naruto opened a picture with a full view of the scene and right away zoomed in on it. He went through every inch of it, carefully taking in any possible evidence. Actually, he did it twice. He found nothing. He wasn't exactly surprised. But since he had something else in mind, he wasn't too upset about it. He opened a graphics software and brought the picture back on his screen. He then little by little started to tweak the contrast of the picture. The darker it got, the clearer the details were. He soon got what he wanted. A detail gone unnoticed. To be sure, he went through the same procedure with the rest of the pictures. The results made him quite happy with himself. The pools of blood now showed all movement that had been going on in the middle of it. The last movements of the victims were visible and so was the obvious track of someone gotten dragged across the room. What separated it from all other traces was the way it continued all the way to the exit of the room. A body had been dragged out. In a room of seven corpses one more shouldn't matter. But it had. And Naruto now had what he wanted.

Naruto printed the edited photos and put them away. He then stood up, checked the time and suited up. It was past eleven already. He hadn't promised to show up a specific time, but this was as good as any. He was already on his way out when the phone rang. With a grunt he turned away from the door and went to pick up the phone.

"Yes?"

"You have an incoming call. Shall I connect?"

Naruto recognized the receptionist's voice. He was almost ready to decline, but decided against it.

"Sure"

It only took a second to reconnect.

"Naruto?" a soft female voice spoke.

"Hey, Sakura", Naruto said and wanted to sigh.

"Am I disturbing you?" her tone turned audibly insulted.

Naruto had to roll his eyes.

"No you're not, I'm just in a hurry. And fucking tired", he said.

Sakura huffed.

"Well don't take it out on me. I actually had a real reason to call", she muttered.

"Well, tell me"

"I got the results from the doctor"

"Ok. So, what's the verdict?"

There was a short silence.

"It's you", Sakura then said.

Naruto sort of expected to have a reaction to this, but the news didn't really feel like anything.

"Oh. Okay", he said not knowing what else to do.

"_Oh, okay_?! That's it?" Sakura sort of shrieked.

Naruto had to pull away from the phone to avoid any hearing damage.

"Well, what am I supposed to say?" Naruto asked staying clueless on the subject.

The fierce gritting of teeth that Sakura was executing could be heard even on Naruto's end.

"Shit. I'm not gonna fight about this too. Whatever. Doesn't really matter to me how you take it. You're the problem, but according to the doctor, it can be fixed. So are you still making the fucking baby with me?" Sakura asked clearly frustrated.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll fucking fix it then. But right now I'm supposed to be somewhere, so I'm hanging up", Naruto said and ended the call before his other half had the chance to protest.

He needed a few deep breaths to calm down.

"Well, well. Wasn't that fucking fun?" Naruto muttered to himself.

He turned around and walked out of the room. The entire ride to the prison he felt like jumping out of the cab would've been a great idea. But since self-harm wasn't really his cup of tea, he decided not to. He managed to keep himself inside the car until he finally arrived at the prison. Since he was visiting outside visiting hours, a guard actually had to drive him in a secured van from the gates to the door. So, about 400 feet. Apparently, it wasn't safe for Naruto to walk the distance, since the inmates were spending time on the yard. They had pretty stern looking fences keeping them away, so Naruto didn't really get the point of his ride, but he didn't complain. He got off his ridiculously short ride and marched inside. Soon he saw a man he'd hoped to run into.

"Jiraiya!" Naruto called out.

The white haired man turned around.

"Oh, Naruto. What are you doing here? I didn't know you'd scheduled a meeting", he said.

"I didn't. Well I did, but didn't notify it. I was kind of hoping you'd do me a favor", Naruto said.

The other man gave a look he'd made a thousand times back when Naruto had been a pain in the ass student. It brought back memories.

"This has to be something that'll get me in trouble", Jiraiya said and shook his head.

"Quite possibly. But you know, you still owe me for hooking you up with that friend of mine, old pervert", Naruto said.

Suddenly he felt at ease again around Jiraiya. The distance that their years apart had grown between them seemed to be less dramatic.

The man burst into laughter.

"You're still a pain in the ass, aren't you? Well, let's hear it, then", the man gave in.

"Could you turn off the mics and cameras and keep Sabaku's hands unchained?"

Jiraiya's smile was replaced with an expression between surprise and horror.

"A-are you insane?" was all he could stutter.

Naruto knew he was asking a lot. But he needed it.

"I would like to think not, but you never know", was his answer.

"Stop kidding, brat"

Jiraiya's shock was yet to fade away.

"Not only would I be putting my own ass on the line, but yours too. I know you've formed an opinion of Sabaku based on how he acts, but trust me, you don't know shit. That man is dangerous, don't underestimate him", Jiraiya said with certainty.

Naruto chuckled.

"I know fucking exactly how clueless I am of his capabilities. But I'm going to change that. That's why I'm asking you to do this for me"

Jiraiya seemed puzzled.

"This isn't part of your job. So why do you insist?"

Naruto had no intellectual answer.

"I just have to"

He sounded like an idiot.

"I don't know, kid. Your life is worth more than a hookup", Jiraiya said referring to Naruto's favor.

"I understand why you doubt me. But Sabaku isn't a maniac. He knows better than to hurt me inside these walls", Naruto explained.

Jiraiya had rid himself of the shock and pondered his choices.

"I'll make a deal with you. I'll turn off the mics and leave Sabaku's hands unchained. But the guy's feet will be cuffed _a__nd.._.I'm recording a visual. The tape won't leave my possession, but I'm making sure if anything does happen, he won't get away with it", Jiraiya presented his suggestion.

Naruto didn't have to even think about it.

"Deal. I'd hug you, but that would be weird", Naruto joked and shook hands with the older man.

"You owe me so much you don't even understand, brat"

"I know"

They were silent and still for a while. Jiraiya shook his head.

"I don't what it is about you. You're annoying and demanding, you've always been. Still, somehow people are so intrigued by you", he said breaking the silence.

"Kinda insulting, but thanks anyway", Naruto chuckled.

"But remember, you have that effect on everybody. Including Sabaku. You are exactly the type he likes to focus his mind games on. So…just take that in count", Jiraiya said.

Naruto just nodded.

"I'm still giving you the buzzer in case anything goes wrong"

"Yeah. One more thing, though"

Jiraiya huffed.

"Well, what?"

"No matter what he does, don't send anybody unless I press the buzzer", Naruto requested.

After a roll of his eyes, Jiraiya nodded and then turned to walk away.

"You're playing with fire, kid. I'll go fetch the crazy guy, go sit your ass down", he said without looking back.

Naruto did as told and took the same uncomfortable seat for the third time. The second he sat down, he realized how tired he was once again. His sleep cut short and the rough workout obviously hadn't been a good combination. Sakura being her usual cheery self probably hadn't helped the matter.

Naruto had to keep his head in the game in order to perform with a straight face. Seeing Naruto tired and moody would be too much of a pleasure for Gaara, so he had to keep it hidden. He made that decision just in time it seemed. The door across him creaked open.

And there he was again.

The same red hair, that ghastly pale face and hollow eyes. The room filled with a familiar, dark energy. Naruto's stomach wanted to turn once again, but to his surprise he was able to avoid it. Perhaps he was getting better at this.

Behind Gaara walked Jiraiya. He still carried that disapproving expression of his. He seated Gaara down and tossed the buzzer over to Naruto as they'd agreed. Naruto caught it in midair and nodded in thanks. With one last displeased look, Jiraiya left. Naruto moved his gaze over to Gaara. Even though the man tried to hide it, Naruto could see he was confused. He didn't seem to understand why he wasn't chained to the table as usual. His dark eyes wandered over to the notification light of voice recording. It didn't light up. Gaara's eyes then turned to Naruto, clearly presenting a question. The cold look seemed more intense than before. After a while of being stared, Naruto got bored of it and stood up. He didn't tear his gaze away from Gaara's as he slowly took off his suit coat. By the time it was off and Naruto moved onto opening the buttons of his dress shirt, had Gaara's eyes traveled quite a bit lower. But he didn't say a word.

Naruto ended up standing in front of Gaara in a pair of dress pants and a white wife beater. Gaara's eyes trailed the unexpectedly revealed skin. The man's stare was burning. And slightly displeased. Naruto huffed and took off the last piece of clothing on his upper body. Gaara didn't even bother to hide his stare. Naruto then turned around a couple of times.

"See? Not wired", Naruto said.

He felt naked. And not just because of the lack of clothes. He stood there in front of a complete stranger, a man determined to get inside his head, with all his tattoos exposed. Normally, it wouldn't have been an issue, but Naruto knew Gaara was able to read the ink on his skin. Read all the years he'd recorded on his body. Parts of his life. It was a moment where Naruto had to question how far he was ready to go.

Naruto was slightly surprised that Gaara wasn't able to keep the eye contact he usually was very keen on. The man's eyes were glued way below Naruto's eye level. _Way_ below.

It made him kind of uncomfortable. And kind of not.

"Right. Time for what I came here to do", Naruto said and put his top back on.

He didn't bother with the rest.

"I did as you wished. And I found something", Naruto said and took his seat.

He pulled out the prints from earlier. He laid them on the table for Gaara to see. The man glanced over to them, but stayed silent.

"Figured out yet what it is?"

Gaara lifted his gaze to meet Naruto's. Still, not a word.

"Someone was dragged away. If it'd been one of the targeted victims, there's no reason to bother with that", Naruto said.

Naruto once again waited for a reaction, but already knew it was in vain.

"Someone got dragged away and was never found. Someone who mattered. And that someone is dead."

Gaara's stare turned piercing.

"No point in glaring at me. There was unidentified DNA extracted from blood on the blade of an ax used in the attack. When you get dragged away while bleeding heavily, it's usually not a good sign."

Gaara grunted. And for the first time, a vague flash of an expression crossed his face. Just for a second. A look of pain. Naruto actually got startled. Against all expectations, the flash of humanity made Gaara seem even more dangerous and unpredictable.

Naruto had come to a conclusion when it came to Gaara's involvement with the murders. He wasn't sure if the man had actually done any killing, but he was sure he'd been there. Seen it, perhaps done it. But certainly been there. The unexpected emotion seen in his eyes was proof enough that the someone who mattered, had mattered deeply. And there was something else, too.

An innocent man wouldn't waste time playing mind games under the threat of capital sentence.

"I know you were there", Naruto said.

Gaara's trademark smirk appeared. All traces of emotion were gone again.

"Why does it matter?" he asked.

"It doesn't. Not to me. Even if you did rip heads off of seven people, my job is to get you out of jail. But to the court, it matters. The good news is, we might have someone to blame the whole thing on. But they are most likely dead and you're not. I know you were there. And if the prosecution finds a way to prove it, you better have a damn good explanation", Naruto said.

Gaara tilted his head.

"I do. But it's up to you to make a better one."

"That's what I do best."

"To what extent?"

"Trust me. I've dealt with worse than you."

"Should I be insulted?"

"Maybe"

A kind of tense silence followed.

"You're having a bad day, it seems", Gaara said.

"I assure you, it's none of your business"

"True."

Naruto sighed.

"I really don't find this conversation to be of any use"

Gaara smirked again.

"For a man who waits for me to speak out you seem quite ungrateful", he voiced.

"In that case you must've misunderstood my expectations", Naruto said.

Gaara narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I wasn't aware you had expectations of me"

Naruto gritted his teeth.

"I don't. I have better things to do than to trouble my head with such trivial thoughts", was the nicest answer he could give.

This wasn't going anywhere.

"We both know you're lying"

Shit. Naruto found himself once again in the situation he'd been trying to avoid. Gaara's ability to mess with one's head was extremely irritating. Naruto didn't know if the time he spent thinking about Gaara actually was that obvious or if the man was just guessing. Perhaps it was just an assumption. Either way, it gave the lasting illusion of Gaara having the upper hand in this sick game of his and Naruto wasn't fond of it in the least.

Naruto had to turn things around and decided it was time to change his approach.

"Lying is a waste of time, too. I'm not a fan of it. Give me a call when you're ready to stop wasting everybody's time", Naruto said and stood up.

Gaara's eyes showed that he hadn't been expecting this. For a few seconds Naruto just stood there, watching Gaara. The man seemed irritated and slightly lost, which of course made Naruto happy. He then grabbed his stuff, turned around and made his way towards the door. But he took his time, waiting.

"Shit", Gaara's low voice muttered.

Naruto stopped in his tracks and couldn't help but to smirk. He didn't need more than that. Honestly, he wouldn't get more than that.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked and turned around to face the other man again.

Gaara didn't say anything. But the irritation plastered on his face was enough information. It seemed he hadn't expected for Naruto to grow a pair and walk away even under the threat of losing a well-paying job. Naruto had never underestimated Gaara's ability to manipulate people, but it seemed Gaara had underestimated his. To be honest, Naruto had yet to even get into this twisted game. He wanted to avoid it. It wasn't healthy. But in order to survive this man's "social skills", he might have to.

Naruto waited for Gaara to speak. Or to make eye contact. Apparently the man's eyes were once again focused somewhere below his face. That gave Naruto an idea, that might either work for his behalf or get him killed.

Naruto chuckled. He made his way back to the table, dropped his things and walked over to Gaara. He stood tall in front of the redhead and gave a stare the man couldn't avoid. After a short silence Naruto grabbed Gaara's chair and forcibly turned the seat towards him. Gaara had no choice but to face him. Naruto moved lower to meet Gaara's eye level.

"Do you even want to get out, huh?" Naruto asked with a provoking tone.

Gaara's eyes flashed with anger.

"Didn't we come to a conclusion of having masochistic tendencies? Is this your way of executing them?" Naruto continued with his face dangerously close to his client's.

Jiraiya had been right. He was playing with fire. And he liked it.

Gaara's body moved as if to lunge at Naruto, but the rattling chains around his ankles reminded him of their location. So he stopped. Naruto didn't even flinch. The man's jaw clenched. Naruto moved his lips next to Gaara's right ear coming near to touching. He let his warm breath hit the man's pale neck.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" he asked and let a sadistic smirk form onto his lips.

Gaara's hands clenched into fists. His breath was uneven with either rage or...something else. Naruto's basic instinct of survival must've jumped out of the window, because he slowly moved his left hand to touch the back of Gaara's neck. His skin was softer than Naruto had expected. Gaara's breath hitched. And Naruto enjoyed it. He slowly moved his hand up the man's neck, then running it through his hair. At the back of his head Naruto suddenly clenched his hand, trapping a fistful of flaming red hair. Gaara tensed up. He didn't move, he didn't speak. Naruto's lips moved further down, his breath now hitting the nape of the man's neck. He tightened the grip on Gaara's hair. The man's breath was heavy. Naruto chuckled again.

"You're surprisingly submissive, aren't you?" he said in a low voice and pulled on Gaara's hair forcing his head to tilt backwards.

"I kinda like it"

Naruto's words made Gaara wake up from whatever trance he was in and rush upwards only to be pushed back down with force. His cuffed feet and the strong grip Naruto had of him forced him to comply. Naruto enjoyed this to the core and wanted to keep the man in his submissive state, but let go of his hair anyway. Naruto met a pair of eyes burning with rage. Though he probably should've been scared shitless, he only felt pleased. Even if it was for the element of surprise, he'd been able to crack Gaara's perfect cover. Gaara on the other hand didn't seem so happy about it. Naruto couldn't care less.

"Two can play that game of yours", Naruto said.

The rising of Gaara's killer intent was hard to miss. Naruto wasn't surprised. But Naruto had to admit, the redheads control of his unbelievable rage was impressive.

Since nothing was holding him down anymore, Gaara slowly stood up. He was very close to Naruto and standing up was taller than the blonde. Naruto wasn't sure what would happen, but he knew something would. From the corner of his eye, Naruto could see Gaara's clenched fists getting ready to move. But as Naruto thought, the rage in Gaara's eyes only intensified as he realized it wouldn't be wise to hit him. So he punched the wall behind Naruto. Passing his face only by inches. Naruto didn't have to look to know the man's fist had left a mark in the concrete wall. His fist dripped blood. It stained the floor. They stared at each other. Gaara was still enraged, Naruto kept his face blank. The longer they watched one another the clearer Gaara's eyes burned with anger. He hit the wall again. And again. Over and over. Naruto refused to flinch even in the dangerously close position he was to Gaara's act of violence. His force was unimaginable.

Gaara didn't break their eye contact even in the state he was in. And Naruto couldn't look away. He was mesmerized by the sudden change in Gaara. The face that always lacked emotion was now so full of anger and rage that Naruto just had to stare. He wasn't afraid. He probably should've been. But he couldn't bring himself to be. Not even though he felt blood splatter onto his face. Not even when he heard the cracking sound of Gaara's fist making contact with the wall. Not even though he was pinned between a raging creature and a bloody wall. He must've gone mad for not being afraid.

By the time Gaara was done, the punching fist wasn't pretty. Naruto had blood on his shirt. Gaara's clenched jaw had no intention of relaxing. Gaara made the move to throw one more hit, but Naruto caught his bloody fist into his own.

"Stop it", Naruto told him.

He did. He yanked his hand away from Naruto's and turned away from him. It seemed that the man was trying to calm down. Apparently it required one more outburst as Gaara picked up the chair next to him and threw it against the wall behind Naruto. The piece of furniture was no longer usable.

Naruto was oddly calm. But he did have to hold his breath in order to keep himself that way. He knew that under the calmness were both panic and anger. But he was able to keep all emotions and urges in check. Miraculously.

Naruto had nothing to say. Neither did Gaara. No surprise there. Since that was the case, he walked over to the table to pick up his things. He took one more glance at Gaara whose eyes were still on him, turned around and walked out of the room. As soon as he closed the door, sounds of abusing a chair could be heard. Most likely it was being banged against the wall repeatedly.

Naruto ran his hand through his hair. It came back bloody. He looked a mess. Felt like one too. His head was blank, not being able to comprehend what exactly happened. All he knew was that Gaara still continued his outburst and Naruto wanted to get away from the noise. So he started walking towards the exit .

A door next to the one he'd just closed, opened.

"What the _fuck_ was that?"

Naruto recognized the voice as Jiraiya's. He turned around to face the man. The older man walked in a fast pace while talking to a walkie-talkie commanding Gaara to be taken away.

"Don't worry about it", Naruto said not coming up with a better answer.

Jiraiya wasn't pleased to say the least.

"_Don't worry about it? _Are you serious?! Do you know how hard it was for me not to call the guards? You came this close to ending up in the emergency room."

"Really. I told you, he wouldn't hurt me. He's smart enough to know that", Naruto tried to explain.

Jiraiya was baffled by Naruto's attitude.

"Do you realize that an entire interrogation room is destroyed thanks to you and that homicidal maniac? There is blood on the walls and not a single usable furniture left. And if the taping of that _ever_ gets away from my hands, my career is over. Yours too", he continued his lecture.

"And that's why it's never gonna happen."

Jiraiya wasn't convinced.

"I am so pissed at you. You better hope Sabaku keeps his mouth shut about this", he growled.

Naruto couldn't help but to laugh.

"Trust me. He's not gonna say a word. His ego wouldn't be able to handle it", Naruto snickered.

"How can you be so…so damn laid back about this? This is not a game", Jiraiya tried to comprehend.

"Yes it is. To him it is. But that's not the point. Just trust me on this one. Okay?"

"You're asking too much. I'm not gonna trust a convicted mass murderer", Jiraiya huffed.

"You don't have to. Just trust me. I know what I'm doing", Naruto assured.

"Didn't look like it"

"But I do"

'_Sort of'_

Jiraiya shook his head. He seemed clueless as of what to say. So he just looked at Naruto with worry. Their short silence was broken by the noise of a walkie-talkie. Jiraiya picked it up closer to his ear to get a clearer understanding of the message. He spoke a few words in return and then put it back into his pocket.

"Gaara's been taken to solitary", he informed Naruto.

Naruto simply nodded.

"He'll probably be held there until the hearing"

"I still need to see him before that."

Jiraiya snorted.

"You think I'm going to let you into solitary with him?"

"Yeah", Naruto said.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be fucking ridiculous. There are no cameras, no mics no nothing. You are _not_ going in there", Jiraiya declared.

"There's guards, isn't there?

"Yeah. But Sabaku is an inmate who is not allowed to have meetings without full surveillance"

"He just did."

"And how well did that go?"

"I didn't die."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"I don't understand why you are doing this. Do you even know yourself?" the man asked.

To be honest, he didn't. Not exactly. But he couldn't tell that to Jiraiya.

"Yeah, I do. It's like you said; Sabaku is no ordinary inmate. But I still have my job to do and I'm asking you to make it a bit easier. It's up to you"

Jiraiya shook his head and huffed.

"You know what? Do what you want, brat", the man said and turned to walk away.

"I'm just gonna shut my eyes from it. Call me when you need to get in", he continued and soon disappeared behind the corner.

Satisfied enough with the result, Naruto continued his walk to get out of the building. Before the exit he stopped to take a look at his shirt. It was stained with blood, which probably wasn't a good thing inside this facility. One more thing he could be pissed off at Gaara for. He ripped the top off and threw on his suite coat. The bloodied shirt he stuffed into his brief case along with the dress shirt. He didn't know if a fully tattooed lawyer walking out of a prison bare chested was any better than a bloody shirt, but he wasn't in the mood to care. So, he opened the door and stepped outside. He received a few long stares from the guards, but to be honest he wasn't even near to giving a shit.

Naruto looked up at the sky. The sun he'd watched rise in the morning was now hidden behind dark clouds. Most likely there would be rain.

With a sigh, Naruto reached to his pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out and placed it between his lips. It wasn't morning anymore, nor was it the start of a day at the office, but he needed one. _Really_ needed one.

He was ready to light the cigarette when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Naruto turned to look.

"Sir, you seem to have some blood on your face. Also, you are missing your shirt", a guard politely notified him.

Naruto simply stared at him still itching to light that cigarette. What could he possibly say to that? He went with the easiest one.

"Oh. I hadn't noticed"

With that, he lit the cigarette, took a long drag and walked away from the prison grounds.

* * *

><p><strong>Oooh, the tables have turned...at least for now. And yay, we finally got some closer interaction. Not much, I admit, but let's take it slow ;) I have to say that if these two ever get down to doing it, it's gonna be some damn angry sex. Please review, sweeties.<strong>


	8. A Game for Two

**Jesus. First things first…before I started this story, I did some research on the prison system in Japan. I tried to find details on the architecture of the facilities, routines, cell conditions, etc. One thing I couldn't find was the color of the inmates' clothing, so I went with orange. I now found a human rights report on prison conditions in Japan and turns out they're grey. It also turns out that prison life in Asia is fucking horrible. This story isn't accurate when it comes to reality in prison, nor is it supposed to be, but I gotta tell ya, anything twisted and horrible I come up with for conditions in the prison are most likely a reality over there.**

**The second thing **I'd like to inform you people of is that I went through all the previous chapters and fixed all typos, etc. I could find. I have to admit that with the last couple of chapters I'd been seriously lazy when it comes to proofreading. But I did my best to get rid of all mistakes and promise to be more thorough from now on (holy shit it's annoying to read text with a shitload of typos).****

**Anyway, I've got a new chapter for you folks. Enjoy.**

* * *

><p>A solitary cell. The loneliest, coldest, most depressing place he could think of. Four walls, each one like the other. The disturbingly bright fluorescent light and that aggravating sound it made. No heating, no windows. No bed. Just the hard, cold floor.<p>

And of course, the exceptionally ugly, grey concrete, covering every surface of the room.

Gaara was in a dark state of mind. The exactly same mindset that had once made him the man he was now. It consisted of rage, confusion and the hopeless feeling of weakness. He wasn't weak and he knew that, but a certain someone had made him feel that ugly emotion of inferiority. Gaara wasn't used to the feel of it. He didn't want to give into it.

Gaara was very pleased with being highly intellectual. It gave him the upper hand in life. The majority of the human race was stupid, average at most. Easy to play with. They were the game, he was the player. He liked it that way. When Gaara first met Naruto, he thought he'd found the perfect piece to add to his collection of victories.

That plan backfired.

"_Two can play that game of yours"_

He'd found another player. It made him mad. And challenged at the same time.

Gaara reached to touch his neck. The feel of the blonde's touch refused to leave his skin. Gaara chuckled. He'd gone from zero to hundred in a second. Not only had the man done the impossible by bringing out the animal in him, but he'd actually captured Gaara in that said state of mind. He couldn't get the anger roaring inside him to calm down. He still wanted to destroy something, hurt something. He'd become everything he despised. An animal without control. He was so mad. Not just at Naruto, but himself. Mostly himself. How could he have let the guy crawl under his skin? How could he let him paralyze himself like that? And most importantly, how could he let the man turn him into a raging beast?

A terrifying realization had hit him soon after he'd been taken away. That man's touch had been his first real physical human contact in years. And it'd felt so _fucking_ good. It'd hitched his breath like nothing else before. He'd forgotten he even had a heart until it skipped a beat the second the man's hand touched his skin. It all made him even angrier. He'd always avoided physical interactions, but it seemed Naruto had found a weakness Gaara himself hadn't been aware of.

He couldn't let him touch again. He couldn't give up his control.

Gaara lifted his right hand to eye level. It was still bleeding. Bone was showing.

He wouldn't lose. Not to him.

* * *

><p>Naruto wandered around the city. He wasn't sure where to go. He'd walked for a couple of miles now. People stared. He was still bloody and shirtless. His mind wasn't quite there. It'd escaped to a place where today hadn't happened. Where he wouldn't have to deal with what he'd just done. It might've been the biggest mistake of his life, quite possibly. He'd angered a possible mass murderer and was now covered in his blood because he went on an animalistic rampage. No part of that sounded good.<p>

A drop of water hit his face. He turned his gaze towards the sky. It was raining.

"Shit", he muttered.

He looked around to pinpoint his location. It appeared he was near the bar he'd been by a couple of days ago. And miles away from his hotel. The rain didn't really appeal to him, so he picked up the pace and made his way towards the bar. The last few feet he probably should've ran, since the rain was now pouring, but he didn't bother. He stepped through the entrance and was welcomed by a full room of people. It seemed he wasn't the only one hiding from the weather. His appearance didn't go unnoticed. The long stares and murmurs made it clear that the rain hadn't washed the blood away. He didn't really care about his looks at the moment, but passed a mirror on his way to the counter, so he stopped to see. Bad idea, it seemed. He looked like he'd just murdered something.

"Oh, cutie's back", a voice said behind him.

Naruto turned around to see the one talking.

"Sai."

The man tilted his head.

"Come here, sweetie", he beckoned him.

Naruto just stood for a while, but then made his way over. Sai placed a glass in front of him. Vodka on rocks. Naruto chugged it down in one gulp. Sai refilled the glass.

"Thanks", Naruto said and downed that one too.

"No problem. You don't look too good", Sai said.

"Thanks", Naruto said again.

"But I do appreciate the whole 'no shirt' thing you've got going on", he said and smirked.

Naruto couldn't help but to give a weak smile.

"Thanks", he said once more.

"Have you hurt your vocabulary?", Sai asked and poured another drink.

Naruto took a bit slower with that one.

"I'm not sure what I've hurt. But I don't feel fabulous", he answered.

"I can see that."

They stayed silent for a while. Naruto stared at the counter not really thinking about anything. His brain seemed to have shut down. Maybe that was a good thing.

"Drink up. You're coming to the back with me", Sai told him.

Naruto looked up to face him. He hadn't the energy to refuse, so he downed the drink, placed the empty glass on the counter and stood up.

"Come on", Sai said and made his way through a door behind him.

Naruto walked past the counter following the dark haired man. Behind the door was an office. Sai seated Naruto down. He took the towel hanging on his waist, wetted it under a sink placed in the corner of the room and then took a seat across Naruto. He dragged the chair closer and gently started wiping the blood off of Naruto's face. The white fabric quickly turned red.

"What happened?" Sai asked in a soft tone.

Naruto lowered his gaze. He didn't answer. Sai narrowed his eyes.

"This blood ain't yours", he stated.

Naruto's eyes remained glued to the floor.

"No, it isn't", he admitted.

Sai continued cleaning the blood away. He'd gotten done with his forehead and left cheek.

"You're not hurt", he said.

Naruto finally lift his gaze up to meet Sai's.

"Not physically."

Sai stopped his motions to listen.

"I think I might've done something really stupid", Naruto said and buried his face into his palms.

Sai gently grabbed his wrist and lifted his chin up.

"Stay still, sweetie", the man said and continued wiping his face.

They were silent for a while.

"What did ya do?" Sai asked breaking the silence.

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed.

"Dug an early grave for myself."

Sai was done cleaning the traces of blood. He put down the towel and lowered himself down to crouch.

"Look at that, you're handsome again", Sai said and smiled.

Naruto found the man's flirting pretty uplifting, but couldn't bring himself to smile.

"Listen. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it ain't the worst you've been through", Sai said and placed a hand on Naruto's bare chest.

Naruto looked down to see his tattooed body and a pale hand tracing the pictures. He was right. The most painful things were right there for him to see.

"We're the same, remember?" Sai reminded him.

"You know, a lot of people have tattoos. It's no big deal nowadays. But the one's we carry on our bodies are different. These images once defined who we are. Not the other way around. Never forget that. Nothing is more painful than being just a reflection of something else. We got away from it and whatever happened today can't be worse. Fucking _dying_ isn't worse", Sai spoke.

Naruto placed a hand on top of the one on his chest.

"You know…I've gotten myself into something I'm pretty sure will end up on my skin, too", Naruto said and chuckled.

Sai smirked.

"Oh yeah? I like you, you know. I don't know you, but I have a feeling that you're a stubborn bastard and that's what'll help you through any shit", the man said and tilted his head.

Naruto shook his head in amusement.

"I don't even fucking know you. Why am I letting you touch me?" he asked and smiled crookedly.

"Why am I letting you touch me?" Sai asked him.

Since neither could answer that, they were silent. Sai suddenly lifted his hand up and traced Naruto's lower lip with his finger.

"You've got some blood left there", he stated.

Naruto wasn't sure how to react, so he didn't. They looked at each other. Naruto had a hunch of what would happen, but he wasn't sure how he'd feel about it. He closed his eyes. A pair of cold lips touched his. They stayed there for what felt like forever. And then they were gone.

Naruto opened his eyes.

"Just for good luck", Sai said with a smile.

A genuine one. Naruto chuckled.

"Let's hope it's some use", he said and stood up.

He walked over to a mirror and glanced at his reflection. The blood was gone.

"Hn. I owe you again", Naruto huffed and glanced at the other man.

Sai smirked and made his way to the doorway. Naruto followed him.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to repay me one day", he said.

Naruto smiled and looked at the other man. His smile turned sly as he reached his hand to grab the back of Sai's neck. He roughly pulled the man forward and pressed his lips on paler ones. The man moaned in surprise. Naruto smirked against the cold lips before pulling away.

"That's one down", he stated.

Sai looked at him lips parted.

"That'll work", he admitted recovering from the shock.

They both burst out laughing. What else could they have done?

"You know what? I don't even know your name", Sai said shaking his head.

Naruto realized the man was right.

"I'm Naruto. A lawyer and a straight man regardless of kissing you", Naruto said with a smile.

Sai snorted.

"I'm glad you made an exception just for me", he chuckled.

"Sure. I like you, dude", Naruto said and bumped fists with the man.

For a second, it brought Sasuke to his mind. It faded away quickly. Sai studied Naruto's face. He brought his hand forward and brushed Naruto's cheek.

"You've got scars on your face. I hadn't noticed", he said thoughtfully.

Naruto turned his gaze to the floor.

"Yeah. You can't run away from your past, remember?" he muttered.

"Don't worry. You're not the only one scarred."

Naruto smiled for the man.

"I've gotta get back to work", Sai told him.

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah. Me too. I'll see ya", Naruto said, winked his eye and walked away.

When he got outside, it was still raining. But he didn't mind. Because today he'd done something he hadn't done in years. Made a new friend. He'd gotten to the conclusion that it wasn't really possible at his age anymore. To make real friends. But he had a hunch that Sai might be an exception in that sense too. With some people, it just clicked.

Naruto woke up from his thoughts as his phone rang. He reached down to his front pocket and took it out. His face went dark.

Sasuke.

He didn't know if he should answer or not. He might've regretted it either way. Since that was the case, he accepted the call. But he didn't say a word.

"Naruto?" an unusually soft voice asked.

"Yeah."

Neither of them talked for a while. The rain was pouring. Naruto was soaking wet.

"Where are you?" Sasuke finally asked breaking the silence.

"Standing in the rain."

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that.

"Why?" was the only thing he could come up with.

"Because I've had a crazy fucking day", he said bluntly.

"How so?" Sasuke asked carefully.

Naruto had to laugh out loud.

"Let's see. I woke up to the most horrific feeling I've ever had, realized I've lost ten pounds, pissed off a convicted mass murderer and ended up covered in his blood. Also I am standing shirtless in icy rain and probably will get pneumonia. Oh yeah, and I kissed a guy."

"Hn."

Naruto rolled his eyes. What more could he have expected from him? He sighed.

"Why did you call me?" he wanted to know.

The line was silent for a second.

"I feel like shit", Sasuke admitted.

"You should."

Silent again.

"Don't push me away", Sasuke pleaded.

Naruto shook his head.

"I don't wanna talk about this now. I'll call you when I get back in town", Naruto stated.

Sasuke didn't answer, so Naruto hung up. He put the phone away and turned to face the sky. Cold rain hit his cheeks. He wished it could've washed away the shitty feeling. But since it wouldn't, Naruto shook it off himself. It had been a weird fucking day, but something good had come out of it anyway. He was going to concentrate on that instead.

He pushed away all negative emotions and took out his phone again. He flicked through the contacts to find a number. Upon finding it, he hit dial.

"Kakashi", was the simple answer on the other end of the line.

"Hey, it's Uzumaki", Naruto clarified and started to walk towards his hotel.

It would be a long, wet walk.

"Oh. Hey. What's up?" the man asked.

"I need to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute?" Naruto wanted to know.

"Sure. Is this about Sabaku?" Kakashi pried.

"Yeah. Something happened. Sort of."

Kakashi waited silently for Naruto to continue.

"I went to see him today. It turned kinda ugly."

"Okay…and?" Kakashi sounded a bit unnerved.

"You know how you said that Sabaku didn't come off as impulsively violent?"

"Yeah."

"Well that is now officially a load of shit"

Kakashi didn't respond right away.

"You're not calling me from the emergency room, are you?" Kakashi asked fearing the worst.

"Nope. He didn't lay a finger on me. Or anybody else", Naruto explained while picking up his pace.

The rain came down even harder.

"Then what's the issue?" Kakashi tried to comprehend.

"I provoked him. He didn't take it very well."

"How 'not well'?"

Naruto wondered what would be the best way to describe the situation.

"Two chairs, a table and a wall took a considerable amount of damage. And of course it will take a shitload of work to get my white shirt rid of blood."

Kakashi sighed.

"How is that possible? That man is supposed to be fully restricted and under full surveillance. How could any of that have happened?" Kakashi couldn't help but to wonder.

Naruto didn't feel like telling him at all.

"I…Well, that's the part that's kinda completely my fault", he said.

"Care to clarify?"

"I might've asked them to keep Sabaku unchained."

Sounds of choking on coffee could be heard.

"Are you _insane?_" The man hissed.

"Maybe."

Kakashi was still coughing up his coffee.

"That man has been listed as one of the most dangerous criminals in the country. He isn't actually _allowed_ to have any physical human contact and all interactions happen under full surveillance. And you wanted to give that man the chance to move freely? You are _absolutely_ insane", the older man huffed in some state of shock.

"Um. Yeah. Pretty much", Naruto answered.

"Jesus…did you call me _just_ to let me know you've lost your mind?"

"No. I called you because I know that you're fucking great at your job. I need you to make me a new valuation of Sabaku based on what I told you. How does it fit in his profile?" Naruto demanded.

"I don't know, kiddo. What you did was pretty messed up. You obviously think I won't report this. Why?" Kakashi wondered.

"Because I have a hunch you are like me. Sometimes it's better not to play by the book. Even if you did insist on doing things strictly that way", Naruto said smirking.

Kakashi huffed after a short silence.

"Maybe you should've been a profiler."

Naruto chuckled.

"I knew it. Now will you help me out or not?"

Kakashi sighed.

"Yeah, whatever. So, what exactly happened?"

"Well…I got sick of his bullshit and sort of…touched him. You know, to make him uncomfortable", Naruto admitted.

Naruto could imagine the look of horror on Kakashi's face.

"I want to slap you", he very openly told him.

"Me too. It seemed like a good idea at the moment. So, I touched him. And then kind of pulled his hair", Naruto cringed at his own words.

Kakashi was silent.

"Now I just want to assault you", he then said.

"So did Sabaku. But he kept his hands off me. He was very aware of the location. So instead he just beat the shit out of a wall and a couple of chairs."

Kakashi sighed once again.

"Did he go berserk right away?"

"No. He kind of froze when I touched him. It took a good couple of minutes for him to react", Naruto thought back.

"Right...Has anything else unexpected happened?"

Naruto had to ponder about the meaning of unexpected. Everything seemed to be unexpected when it came to Gaara.

"Well...You did say he didn't come of as manipulative. Load of bull, that too", Naruto told him.

Kakashi thought about everything he'd heard in silence.

"I've gotta say that none of this fits his profile. He certainly would've done something about your actions, but the rage you're describing would not be one those things. I'd say that what happened was either a onetime thing, or something that only you could make happen", Kakashi told.

Naruto thought about this. If the latter statement was true, he'd found a weakness in Gaara. Other than having a unbelievably twisted way of controlling human minds, Gaara had nothing to hold against him.

"Thanks. That's all I needed. I'd appreciate it if this conversation didn't leave our knowledge", Naruto requested.

"Hn. As you wish. You owe me one", Kakashi said before ending the call.

Naruto put his phone away. It seemed he was good at owing people.

Naruto had arrived at the hotel. He rushed inside and upstairs. As soon as he got into his room, he rushed to take a hot shower. It'd be a miracle if he didn't get sick. The warm water running down his body slowly regained the feeling in his fingers and toes. It was not the right time of the year to be running around shirtless. Not at all.

He got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around his waist and popped himself on the bed. He checked his phone for the time. It was 5 pm. Also, he'd gotten a text.

"Hn."

The text informed him that the second hearing would be held on Monday. Only two days from now. It seemed that a free weekend would be out of the question. Again. He'd been working practically around the clock for the last three weeks. Without a day off. The case before his current one had been nearly as complicated and hadn't given him any time off. It was amazing he still was able to function.

But at least after the second hearing he'd have some more time to take it easy. The actual trial, if that ever became a reality, wouldn't start for a while, so he might be able to relax a little.

Naruto turned his laptop on. He opened up the file he'd saved the night before. He had a feeling it would be good to write some thoughts down again.

"_I probably fucked up today. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I learned new things. I learned it's not a good idea to poke the bear…especially if it's locked up in a high security prison for mauling seven people. But I also learned that even the most dangerous creatures have weaknesses. Unfortunately that knowledge came with a side of some raging killer intent. But that's not really the point anymore. The point is that I possibly made a big fucking mistake, but I can't let the bear know that. So I just have to keep on poking, it seems. We'll see whether or not I too get mauled. _

_I never thought Gaara could become that way. The coldness and strangling control he usually possesses were gone in a second and replaced by something damn terrifying. I wasn't afraid at the moment, though. I guess if I'd been, I would've died just from an overwhelming state of shock._

_I touched that man. I touched his cold, pale skin. His flaming red hair. I tugged it. I made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. And I loved every second of it. I am not even sure what about it made me so pleased. Perhaps the control of the situation. Maybe the rush of adrenaline. Maybe…just maybe, the feel of him._

_Shit. I've messed up, haven't I? I've given myself into something I'm not sure I can handle. But isn't that the whole point of living? Taking risks. Playing the game we were born into, with the cards we get. Is it so wrong to enjoy the gamble? I'd say it's better than being afraid of it. That's where he and I are alike. We are both players determined to win. And if we lose, we'll only want more. As long as there are cards to be dealt, there are players to play the game._

_I guess, in the end of the day, it's all about who holds the best hand"_

Naruto saved the short text he'd written. He shut off the computer and decided it was time to take a look at the case file again. He grabbed the file and placed it on the bed, but before opening it, he concluded he needed food. He called the room service and requested to have something brought up. He then took out a notepad and a pencil. The case had gotten to a point where notes were essential to keep up with all the data.

He figured it would be best to start coming up with a strategy for the defense. The unidentified DNA was his best chance on convincing the jury of another party. He now knew that whoever it belonged to had somehow been linked to Gaara. Gaara must've been there. It was likely he knew what happened to that person. But Naruto had a feeling he wouldn't be able to get the information without a struggle. Whatever Gaara's explanation was for his presence at the scene didn't really matter if the prosecution couldn't find any proof to support it. Also, he wouldn't have to present the evidence of a body being dragged away if the subject never came up. In that case he would simply have to link the person, whose DNA was found, to the murders. Thankfully he still had time to do that as the possible re-trial wouldn't start just yet. Right now he had to hope that the psychological evaluation of the witness would force him to drop out. If that didn't happen, he would need a miracle to make the witness' statement invalid.

The good news was that he pretty much had a defense ready for Monday. The DNA, the witness hiding evidence and the lack of motive would quite possibly get them a re-trial.

Naruto wrote down his strategy and just as he got done, a knock on his door was heard.

"Room service", a voice said.

"Come in", Naruto permitted.

A young woman came in with a tray. She placed it down on a table, took the money Naruto offered and then left with thanks. Naruto got down to eating and thought about the upcoming hearing. He was sure he had everything he needed to get Gaara a new trial. He found it ironic how keen he was on getting out of jail a man who irritated him to the bone. And vice versa, it seemed. Since the hearing would be held in just two days, it meant Naruto would have to meet Gaara again tomorrow. Swallowing food got harder when he thought about it. He didn't know what to expect. Would the redhead lunge himself on Naruto the second he walked inside? Or would he act like nothing happened?

He would have to wait until tomorrow to find out, it seemed.

The next morning was considerably more pleasant then the day before. The exhaustion had forced him to go to sleep before 10 pm and he'd slept a good ten hours. No nightmares appeared either. For the first time in weeks he felt rested. He'd gotten up, ordered some coffee from the room service and seated himself down on the armchair to smoke his morning cigarette. He was now halfway through his cigarette and watched the city just like the morning before. It wasn't a sunny morning, but he didn't mind. He was too relaxed to care. He just enjoyed the peaceful state of mind he was in.

After a couple of minutes of daydreaming, he reached to grab his phone and made a call.

"Brat", was the "cheery" answer.

"Hey, old pervert", Naruto said in return.

"What do you want this early on a Saturday morning?", the man asked.

"I need to see him", Naruto told.

The man sighed.

"Is it absolutely necessary? Seriously, I haven't gotten over yesterday yet."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Jiraiya. The hearing is on Monday. So, I really need to see him", Naruto explained.

The older man groaned in frustration.

"Damn brat. Fine. I'll pick you up in forty. Send me the address"

With that, the call ended.

Naruto took his time drinking the rest of his coffee, then got up and dressed himself. He didn't bother with a suit. He'd been half naked the day before, so the point in looking fancy was long gone. He threw on a pair of black jeans, a white tee and a hoodie. He left the earring in place too. He felt like he'd gone too far from being professional, so what's the point in trying?

Naruto was soon outside waiting for his ride. It was no longer raining, but the ground was still wet. A car honked. Naruto turned to look and was hit so hard with jealousy, it was unbelievable. It was Jiraiya. And a 1970 Classic Dodge Charger R/T, that had made Fast and Furious-movies worth watching. Naruto made his way to the car and kind of wanted to kiss the damned thing, but skipped that and took his seat.

"I wouldn't be this jealous even if my wife got banged by another man", Naruto muttered as soon as they got on the road.

Jiraiya had to laugh.

"Yeah, well maybe you'll be as awesome as me one day. Awesome people get cars like this", Jiraiya grinned.

Naruto chuckled and shook his head.

"I didn't even know you were married", Jiraiya pointed out.

"Oh. Yeah, I am. Been for four years now."

Jiraiya just nodded.

"You got married pretty young then", the man stated and glanced at the blonde.

"Yeah."

"So, how's it been?" Jiraiya pried.

Naruto knew he'd ask that and couldn't help but to sigh.

"Well it's…it's not great", he admitted.

Jiraiya huffed.

"And there's the reason why I've never gone down that road", he said.

"Yeah…maybe it was a good call", Naruto muttered.

Jiraiya glanced at Naruto form the corner of his eye.

"Hey kiddo, you'll be fine. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I've lived long enough to know that shit comes and goes. So don't overthink it", he tried to comfort.

Naruto chuckled.

"Thanks. But let's stop before this gets awkward", he said.

Jiraiya nodded and smiled. The smile soon disappeared as he picked up another touchy subject.

"About Sabaku…I seriously hope you understand what you're getting into", he said.

"I do."

Jiraiya turned to look at him.

"Ok."

That's all he said. Naruto wasn't sure what it exactly meant, but asked no questions. It was good enough.

They'd arrived at their destination. They both went through the mandatory security measures. Jiraiya then lead Naruto to an elevator to take them down to the basement.

"This time, Sabaku will be cuffed", Jiraiya stated as they waited for the elevator to arrive.

Naruto looked a bit displeased.

"Is it absolutely necessary?"

"Yes."

Naruto didn't push it. The elevator doors opened and they got inside. They went a few floors down and got out. Naruto trailed Jiraiya's steps down a long, quite depressing corridor. A guard stood in front of a cell, placing cuffs on an inmate through the opening in the door. Jiraiya and Naruto stopped at the cell and the older man ordered the guard to stand by while he opened the door. Naruto's breathing got uneven when he realized what was waiting behind the iron door. By the time the door was open, he was ready to panic. Gaara stood there in the doorway with his hands cuffed in front of him. He seemed taller than Naruto remembered. The doorway of the cell was quite narrow, but the fact that the inmate's shoulders were nearly as broad as the opening, was slightly unnerving. The man's jumpsuit's top half was tied around his waist, his torso covered only by a white t-shirt. When Naruto realized the ridiculously fit shape the taller man was in, he seriously feared for his life. Had he known what was hidden beneath the orange clothing, he probably would've thought twice before provoking that lump of muscle.

The guard next to them was holding another pair of cuffs. Jiraiya nodded to the man, who then went on to chain Gaara's feet. Gaara kept staring Naruto with cold eyes, jaw clenched. Naruto wanted to look away. The man's eyes were colder than ever. Naruto glanced at Gaara's right hand. It wasn't pretty. It hadn't been patched up, not even washed. Dried blood and exposed knuckles. Lovely.

The guard got done with his task. Gaara was now cuffed by both his hands and feet. Jiraiya handed Naruto a buzzer again, in case something were to happen. He then ordered Gaara to stand at the back of the cell, facing the wall. He did as told. Jiraiya then gave Naruto permission to enter. The door closed behind him. He could hear Jiraiya ordering the guard to keep watch a few feet away. Then he left.

Naruto stayed still, watching Gaara's back. He hoped the man wouldn't turn around. But he did. The second Naruto had to meet the man's ice cold eyes again, he wanted to run away. Too bad he was locked in a high security solitary cell. With a ridiculously strong convicted murderer he'd happened to piss off.

"Shit"

That was all he had time to say before Gaara had pinned him to the wall. The man's forearm was pressed against his throat. It was hard to breath, but Naruto didn't even bother to try to get away. It would've been a useless attempt.

"Give me one good reason not to crush your airways", Gaara bluntly said.

The man's face was only inches away from his. Naruto was quite sure if he tried to speak, he'd end up choking on his own words. But he had to say something.

"I'm your only way out of this hell hole", Naruto said trying hard not to stutter.

"What if I don't care?" was Gaara's argument.

It was a very good argument.

"In that case I'm in really deep shit", Naruto wheezed.

His airways felt crushed already. Gaara added pressure making Naruto seriously choke. He tried to endure it, but after ten seconds, it was impossible to breathe. He had to do something. Otherwise he would be leaving in a body bag.

He kicked the man in the abdomen.

It worked. He got the man off. Naruto was desperately trying to get air and couldn't stop coughing. Gaara's stared at him. He stared back, still struggling to get air. Suddenly the man lunged forward fist first. Naruto closed his eyes expecting pain, but instead of his face, the fist made impact with the wall behind him. Cautiously the blonde opened his eyes. Cold eyes watched his from just inches away. Gaara's fist was bleeding again. It had to hurt. He'd hit concrete with bones exposed. The hand had to be fractured, too. How could he endure pain like that?

Naruto realized Gaara wouldn't hurt him this time either.

"Stop. You're not gonna hurt me, so stop it", Naruto demanded.

Gaara was visibly displeased with his tone. But he stayed calm. They stared at each other for a while. Naruto was afraid to move. But since he eventually would have to, he reached out to take Gaara's hand into his.

"Let me take a look at it", Naruto said and touched the man's injured hand.

The contact made Gaara yank his hand away. The redhead moved away from Naruto.

"Don't touch me", he ordered.

Naruto looked at Gaara. He was frightened of his touch. Or of what would become if he let that happen.

"Ok", Naruto promised.

They were silent again. Naruto put a hand on his throat. It still hurt. The force Gaara possessed was crazy. Naruto had always been strong, too. He would've easily taken down three men, but Gaara would've had no problem with ten. That was a scary thought.

Naruto coughed a couple of more times to be able to speak properly.

"The second hearing will be held on Monday."

Gaara didn't react to the news.

"I've got the defense done and ready", Naruto continued.

Gaara simply nodded.

"Sit down, okay?" Naruto requested.

He wouldn't be at ease before he could get the man to calm down. Gaara didn't make a move to comply. Naruto bit his lip. If the massive thing of muscle didn't sit down, Naruto would have to get out. He'd done a great job the day before with keeping his emotions in check, but it seemed today wouldn't be like that. Naruto was so close to panicking, he felt like fucking crying.

Thankfully, Gaara finally lowered himself on the floor. Naruto breathed out in relief. He too sat down. Slowly. He felt like he was in a cage with a wild tiger that would attack at any sudden movement. Naruto would've wanted to stay as far from him as possible, but he couldn't let his nervousness show, so he crouched down in front of him.

"We'll make it to re-trial."

Gaara stayed silent.

"When the hearing's over, I'm flying back home. I'll see you at the trial", Naruto explained.

Gaara nodded. He sat there on the floor, leaning his hands against his knees. The injured hand looked horrible. The prison system was too rotten to care about the health of inmates, so it would be left that way. It would get infected.

Naruto took off his hoodie and t-shirt. He put the hoodie back on, but grabbed the tee and went over to the small sink. He wetted the shirt and then sat down in front of Gaara again.

"Give me your hand."

Gaara's eyes flashed with anger.

"If you don't let me wash it, you'll probably end up having one hand less", Naruto said not giving up.

Since Gaara wouldn't move, Naruto cautiously reached to him. He very carefully brushed the man's hand with his fingers, just to see the reaction. He was still alive and wasn't being beaten into a pulp, so he decided to take the hand into his own. Gaara tensed up, but didn't move or tell him to stop. Naruto gently pressed his wet shirt against the open wound. It had to sting like hell, but Gaara's face stayed stoic. Naruto got brave enough to push one of the man's crouched legs down against the floor. He moved a little closer to get more room to complete his task. It appeared that after a while, the pain got strong enough to affect Gaara. His healthy hand clenched into a fist. He gritted his teeth. Naruto tried to be quick, but the blood was dry and clotted. Gaara groaned. Naruto hurriedly ripped the stained shirt apart. He took a larger strip and tied it tightly around Gaara's hand. It had to hurt, but Gaara's face had gone back to its stoic mode.

"I'm done", Naruto told him.

The man looked at him.

"Thanks", he muttered.

Naruto was surprised to hear him say that. But glad.

They were in kind of an awkward position. Naruto was more or less crouched between Gaara's legs. They were dangerously close to each other. But neither one moved away. Gaara's face was close enough for his breath to hit Naruto's face. Naruto didn't know what to do. His instinct told him to back the fuck away, but his body wouldn't move. Instead it decided it would be a great idea to reach out and touch the man's face. Gaara flinched and looked at him eyes wide. Naruto probably should've been scared shitless, but only felt the need to get closer. In a different way than yesterday. Naruto slowly moved his hand lower. He placed his hand onto the man's neck, just like the day before, just in a more gentle way. Gaara closed his eyes. Naruto could feel him shiver under his touch. Naruto dropped down to his knees to get closer. He placed his other hand on the man's chest turning his breathing heavier. Naruto wanted to pull the man closer. But he didn't. It turned out to be a good call.

Gaara's eyes shot open. At that exact moment Naruto realized what he was doing and jolted away. For a fraction of a second they looked at each other horrified. Then a fist, that Naruto didn't even see coming, hit his jaw. Gaara's hands being cuffed, he actually got the force of two fists. It hurt like a bitch. A tooth cracked. Instinct kicked in and Naruto grabbed the man's cuffed hands, rose up and kicked him in the head with serious force. Gaara's head flung to the side. He was bleeding. But it didn't take long for him to strike a blow to Naruto's kneecap with his elbow.

And fuck did that hurt.

The pain forced Naruto to lose focus for a second. By the time he'd gotten his head back into the game, Gaara was standing up. Naruto didn't have time to react before the other one had gotten his handcuffs' chains around his neck. He was chocking again. With nothing else to do, Naruto backed against the wall behind them, Gaara's first, with enough force to get the man to loosen his grip. It was enough for Naruto to get away. He was quick to turn around and kick Gaara in the abdomen. The man crouched over, Naruto standing in front of him. He probably should've moved further away, because in a flash, Gaara had struck his face with an extremely painful hit. Blood filled his mouth. He had to spit it out.

He stopped to look at the other man. They were both bleeding. They were both out of breath. This was absolutely no use.

"This is fucking pointless", he pointed out.

How exactly would he explain this to Jiraiya?

"Just fucking stay over there", he told Gaara.

The man clenched his jaw, but didn't move.

Sounds of running could be heard from the corridor.

"Guards. Shit. _Shit_", was all Naruto could say.

The look on Gaara's face was as blank as ever. The footsteps got closer and loud voices echoed outside the door.

"_Sit the fuck down_", Naruto hissed.

Anger darkened Gaara's face again, but he did as Naruto said. He was smart enough to know it was the best thing to do. As soon as the man had seated himself down, the cell door opened. Jiraiya and five guards stepped inside. Naruto would've rather been buried six feet under than confronting Jiraiya. The look on his face was inexplicable. It took a few seconds for him to take it all in.

"Restrain them. Both of them", he said.

Jiraiya was mad as hell. Naruto was embarrassed as hell. Gaara was pissed as hell.

Two guards forcefully grabbed both of Naruto's arms and cuffed his hands. Gaara got pinned to the floor face first. Naruto got dragged away as soon as possible. They'd gotten to the corridor when Naruto yanked himself free and turned to Jiraiya.

"Don't overreact. There's no need to have me cuffed", Naruto tried desperately to get out of the situation.

"Shut up. There is every need for it", he said not sparing a glance to Naruto's direction.

Jiraiya grabbed tightly his arm and dragged him to the other side of the corridor. They stopped in front of a cell.

"Open up", Jiraiya ordered the guards.

They did as told. The door was opened and Naruto got shoved inside the cell. Jiraiya turned to face the guards.

"All those who want to keep their job, is going to shut the hell up about everything they just saw. Understood?" he told them.

He got a unanimous 'Yes, Sir'.

"Good. Inform the others too. Now, leave", Jiraiya said and they scattered.

He then turned towards Naruto.

"Here's the deal, brat. You will be held in here for the next 24 hours. It's either that, or an actual arrest. You choose", he presented Naruto his choices.

Naruto wanted to protest, but knew it would be better to stay quiet. So he nodded.

"If it were up to me, I'd make sure you never cross paths with that man again. But it's not, so I'm gonna lock you up instead. Deal with it", the man said, turned away and walked out slamming the door shut.

Naruto stared at the closed door. He wasn't really sure what had happened, but he did know it wasn't good.

He was quite possibly knee-deep in shit.

* * *

><p>Gaara wanted to tear apart the guards holding him down with his bare hands. He was now cuffed with his hands behind his back. The side of his face was pressed against the cold floor. He was in pain, but his mind wasn't present to mind it. His thoughts revolved around the blonde. That fucked up son of a bitch, who'd given him a beating he hadn't had in ages.<p>

He'd let him touch again. He'd touched him in a way that made something dead come back to life. He didn't want that. He didn't want those things to live. Being dead inside was better than having something dying inside. That's what it would always come to. Everything living was always slowly dying.

Gaara's mind went back to the feel of the blonde's touch.

What if he couldn't avoid it? What if as long as the blonde was near him, he would end up the same way?

He would have to get rid of him.

The thought made Gaara burst into a mad, twisted laughter. The guards pinning him down flinched at it. He couldn't stop laughing.

His thought was absolutely ridiculous. He couldn't get rid of him. He couldn't get out. That man had trapped him into his own game. He wouldn't be able to give up.

He would chase his victory 'till the end of time.

He would chase the blonde 'till the end of time.

* * *

><p><strong>Seems like the old pervert was right all along.<strong>

**Please review, darlings.**


	9. Shades of Blue

_Naruto stands outside again. The fire, the smells. It's all there. This time he stands closer to the raging flames. It stings, hurts even. But he doesn't back away._

_Screams fill the air once again. The voices are close, but still distant. He can't make out the words. _

_He feels powerful. Even more so than last time. The flames dance, as if performing for him. He can't tear his gaze away. It is beautiful. The screams of suffering are like music. The scene is gruesome, but so beautiful._

_Something emerges from the flames. A humanlike figure. It isn't in agony. It makes no sound. It just watches him. He wants to move closer. He takes a step. The figure reaches out its hand. He wants to take it. He takes another step._

_It hurts._

_He moves closer. The pain becomes suffocating. But he wants to reach the one standing in front of him. So, he goes even further. The pain becomes too much. _

_He gets burned. Skin peels off. He can't go any further. He collapses onto his knees. The figure watches him. He watches the figure. _

_He can't move anymore. He is on fire. A cry of pain escapes his lips._

_The figure won't wait any longer. It turns around. He wants to follow. He drags his body deeper into the flames. But he can't reach it. It is gone. _

_He is alone again. The screams are gone. Only he is left inside the fire. _

_He burns alone._

Naruto woke up screaming. He was covered in cold sweat. He couldn't stop the violent trembling. He was hot and cold at the same time. He tried to sit up, but it hurt too much to move. He felt paralyzed and couldn't breathe properly. His head felt heavy.

It took him some time to realize he was lying on cold concrete. That realization was enough to help him concentrate on his breathing. It must've taken minutes for him to calm down. Even after he'd properly woken up, he was afraid to move. He carefully turned from his side onto his back. It hurt like hell. Every inch of his body was sore. He had to give his everything just to get to a sitting position. But once he did, it eased the pain.

Naruto glanced around him. It hit him that he was in a solitary cell. He had no idea how long he'd been there. He'd fallen asleep just a few hours after getting locked up. But he did remember the few hours as being a living hell. Mentally and physically. It'd taken only a few minutes for him to realize what he'd done. And when reality kicked in, he'd gone near insanity. So many things had gone so wrong. He didn't know which had been worse; the kicking him in the face part or the touching him the way he'd touched part. Either way, Naruto was sure he'd suffer for it. He was horrified when he thought about the way he'd touched Gaara. He had no way of explaining it. Not to Gaara, nor himself.

Naruto's hands were still cuffed. He spat out some blood. He wondered if he had any teeth left. Naruto could only imagine what he looked like. Thankfully, solitary cells rarely had mirrors.

Naruto startled upon hearing footsteps outside his cell. After a rattling of keys, the door opened. Jiraiya was standing in the doorway. He didn't say anything, just looked kind of disappointed. The look made Naruto feel like a child.

"You look like shit", the man said.

"I feel like shit", Naruto responded.

The man leaned against the doorframe and stared. Naruto stared back.

"Knows better than to hurt you, huh?" Jiraiya said.

Naruto closed his eyes in frustration. He couldn't bring himself to tell Jiraiya why exactly Gaara had lost it. It wouldn't help the matter in the least.

"How long have I've been here?" Naruto asked.

"It's Sunday evening."

Naruto was sort of shocked.

"Are you telling me I slept for 20 hours?"

"Yeah."

Well, it couldn't be a bad thing.

"Am I getting out now?" Naruto wanted to know.

"Yeah."

Naruto looked at the older man. He was displeased as hell.

"I know I fucked up. Just let it go", Naruto muttered.

"I'm not letting you out before you tell me what I wanna hear", Jiraiya told him.

Naruto glared at him.

"You were right", he finally mumbled.

"Oh sorry, what was that?" the man provoked.

"I said you were fucking right", Naruto said again, raising his voice.

"That's damn right, brat. Now lift that beaten ass of yours up and get out", Jiraiya ordered.

Naruto slowly pulled himself up from the floor. Every move was hell. But he managed to stand up. He carefully walked over to Jiraiya. His stare burned holes into him.

"I seriously hope that Sabaku is never getting out", Jiraiya said.

Naruto got angry upon hearing his words. Why, he did not know.

"I'm not backing out", Naruto growled.

"I know. That's what makes you a huge idiot", Jiraiya told him grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the cell.

Naruto couldn't keep a good posture. To be able to move even an inch, he had to be slightly hunch over. Jiraiya stood silent beside him. Naruto didn't know what to say. He must've looked pathetic.

"You do realize that Sabaku might get released on bail if the verdict gets overturned and the re-trial happens", the older man said breaking the awkward silence.

Naruto nodded.

"If I were you, I'd be scared shitless. When he's out, there nothing stopping him from coming after you", he continued.

Naruto knew that.

"I know. But going crazy over it ain't gonna help shit", he muttered.

Jiraiya's face softened slightly.

"Shit, brat. I can't get you out of this mess", he said and shook his head.

"It's not your problem, so don't trouble yourself", Naruto told him.

Jiraiya sighed.

"True. You're a grown man now. I'd help you if I could, but I can't. You have to figure this out yourself", he admitted.

Naruto didn't respond to that. He turned his gaze over to the cell where everything had turned to shit. Jiraiya noticed Naruto's stare.

"He's as cuffed as he can be. He can't move his feet, hands or head", Jiraiya explained.

Naruto snorted.

"He must be ecstatic."

Naruto turned his gaze away. Knowing, that just one door was keeping Gaara away, wasn't enough. He wouldn't have been surprised if it took just one little shove for the man to get the door down.

"I need to get out of here", Naruto informed.

Jiraiya nodded and led Naruto to the elevator. Waiting for the elevator to arrive, Jiraiya freed Naruto's hands from the cuffs. He rubbed his sore wrists. The cuffs had left a bluish mark on his skin.

"It'll fade away in a couple of days", Jiraiya told him.

The elevator doors opened.

"But I can't say the same about your face", he continued and stepped inside.

Naruto turned to look at the mirror on the back wall of the elevator. He choked on his own spit.

"_Oh my fucking god!", _he cried out.

He looked like he'd been hit by a truck. His face was covered in blood as were his clothes. His lower lip was split. He had a black eye and the right side of his face was blue. And the most gruesome part was his neck. Gaara's forearm had turned his skin purple. And as if that wasn't enough, the cuffs' chain had left a detailed print across his neck.

Jiraiya couldn't help but to snicker at the face Naruto made upon seeing his reflection.

"You can only blame yourself, you know", he said knowingly.

Naruto glared at him. And then at his own image in the mirror. He'd looked worse. In no way had it been his worst beating. But he hadn't expected to ever be in this situation again. Successful, rich attorneys weren't supposed to get into fistfights and end up blue as a smurf.

"Get me the fuck out of here", Naruto growled and stepped into the elevator.

In a few minutes he was sitting in Jiraiya's car. The man was speeding through the city to get Naruto back to his hotel. Naruto reached into to his pocket to get his phone. He'd had it with him the whole time, but down in the prison cellar, there was no reception. He had no idea how many missed calls he'd gotten, but after a while the sent messages started coming through. He'd gotten five texts, all of them from Sakura.

How would he explain this to her?

"Shit. How am I gonna explain this to the ball in chain?" Naruto wondered out loud.

Jiraiya laughed mockingly.

"I'm sorry, brat, but I can't help myself from enjoying this just a little", he snorted.

Naruto sighed. He most likely would have to tell her the truth. At least for the most part. But it could wait a while longer.

"We're here", Jiraiya informed and pulled over.

Naruto turned to look at him.

"I'm sorry I got you into this shit", he mumbled.

Jiraiya smiled at him.

"You know...I've been the closest thing you've got to a father. The moment I made the choice to become that, I excepted the fact that you were gonna be trouble. No matter how old you are, that won't change. And neither will the fact that I've got your back", he said.

Naruto smiled back.

"Thanks."

He stayed for a while longer, but then got out and closed the door behind him.

He watched the man drive away in that enviably beautiful car of his. He then turned to face the hotel and made his way inside. People in the lobby stared at him. The receptionist was horrified.

"Sir, are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?" the woman behind the counter asked.

Naruto shook his head.

"I'm fine. Thanks anyway", he assured and continued walking.

By the time he'd gotten to his room, he was in excruciating pain. He opened up his suitcase, dug up a bottle of pain killers and swallowed a couple of them. He sat onto the bed and took a deep breath. He would have to call Sakura. Just the thought of it made his headache worse. But it had to be done, so he took out his phone and made the call.

"Naruto? Are you okay?" she answered worriedly.

"Yeah. Sort of."

"What do you mean? I've been trying to reach you all day. Where have you been?", she demanded to know, still worried.

Naruto couldn't believe what he had to tell her.

"In jail", he mumbled.

A long silence followed.

"_What?"_ the voice at the other end of the line hissed.

Naruto said nothing.

"What the hell happened?" she asked.

Naruto wondered how to explain it to her without being too specific.

"I went to meet my client and shit went down. I'll tell you about it when I get home", he said.

"When are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow evening"

Sakura sighed. She obviously wanted to know right away, but knew it would only lead to a fight, so she didn't push it.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow", she complied.

Naruto was relieved.

"Yeah."

"I love you", Sakura told him.

Naruto took a second before replying.

"Yeah, love you too."

He hung up. Declaring his love for her didn't feel the same anymore.

Naruto's thoughts were once again filled with the redhead. He couldn't forget the feeling he'd gotten from being so close to him. For a second there, he'd forgotten where he was. He'd forgotten who he was with and what he was doing. Reality had disappeared. For a second, there'd only been him and a being he'd needed to get close to. He had no way of explaining it. It was beyond logic. And it pissed him off.

Naruto grunted and let himself fall down onto the bed. Jesus it felt good compared to the cold floor of the solitary cell. Even though he'd just woken up from a 20 hour slumber, it didn't take long for him to drift away and fall asleep. And he slept 'till morning.

The following morning, Naruto was standing in front of the bathroom mirror. His bruises and cuts looked even worse than before. The pain hadn't dulled in the least. He'd taken a couple of more painkillers after waking up, but the affect seemed to be nonexistent. He had to be at the courthouse in an hour, preferably looking presentable.

"Well that's not gonna happen", he muttered to himself.

He had no way of covering up the bruises. He didn't own make up, and even if he had, it wouldn't have been much use. The bluish bruises had turned into a deep purple and flaming red, with a sickly green color in the mix. It looked nasty. And felt nasty. He couldn't turn his head without pain running down his neck.

He had no choice. He suited up, sleeked his hair neatly back and put on a black tie. The reflection didn't look much better. Before, he'd looked like a filthy junkie, now he looked like a fancy junkie. He guessed the latter was the better out of two kinds of ugly. With a sigh he turned away from the mirror, grabbed his briefcase and headed out. He hollered a cab and hopped in. The driver was a nice, chatty man. He didn't even seem to notice Naruto's bruised face. At least he didn't bring it up. Naruto tried hard to be nice too, but just couldn't bring himself to smile. When they finally arrived at the courthouse, Naruto was drained from pretending to care about the man's chattering. He paid the man, gave him a tip and got out. As soon as he'd shut the door, Naruto noticed a van parked in on the side of the road. 'Fuchu Prison Inmate Transport' was painted on the side of it. There was only one thing that vehicle could contain.

"Oh fuck", Naruto said his breath hitching.

For a second, he considered running away as being an option. But he couldn't, so instead he just froze. The van's side door opened. A terrifying view was revealed. Gaara stepped out of the car onto the street. He was cuffed in a manner that was just a step away from being a scene in The Silence of the Lambs. The man could barely walk with all that metal wrapped around him. As Gaara turned towards Naruto, something even more terrifying showed. The side of his face was bruised deep purple. The injured hand had seeped blood through the shirt Naruto had wrapped around it. His brow had an open wound. Naruto could see that walking was painful for him, but the man shook it off and forcefully took a step after another. The man stopped walking when he noticed Naruto standing on the sidewalk. The blonde's feet almost buckled under him. Gaara watched deep into his eyes, as if into his soul. After what felt like hours of chilling staring, Gaara's lips curled into a twisted smile.

"Oh fuck", Naruto repeated.

His heart stopped beating all together. The man's smile was the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen. Jiraiya had been right. He couldn't run away from that monster. He would come after him. The thought made Naruto consider skipping the hearing and running as far as he possibly could. Why would he want to help the man get out of jail, if that was the only place he couldn't get his hands on Naruto?

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts when Gaara used one of his restrained hands to beckon him. Naruto had to admit, that going any closer that sick looking grin went against all logic, but he complied. Cautiously he stepped closer. So did Gaara. The guards behind him grabbed him and pulled him back. The guards' tense faces made Naruto nervous. But he moved closer anyway. He didn't say anything. Just watched and waited.

"You don't look too good", Gaara smirked.

His eyes were nothing like before. Those were the eyes of a crazy guy. Naruto didn't respond.

"I like it", the redhead sneered.

Naruto's eyes grew colder by the second. His fear was long gone and been replaced by loathing.

"What's the matter? Why don't you come a little closer?", the man chuckled.

Naruto glared into his piercing eyes. At the moment he hated those eyes. Still, he couldn't stop getting sucked into them.

"Because you can't fucking control yourself", he growled.

Gaara's eyes filled with anger once again. He jolted forward. The guards had to do their everything to keep him from touching Naruto. His eyes were so filled with hatred, Naruto feared he'd drop dead just from being looked at.

"You are like spawn of Satan. You turn me into an animal. You make me want to rip living things apart. You've possessed me. _And I can't get out",_ he hissed not an inch away from the blonde's face.

Naruto kept his face blank. An expression suitable for his feelings hadn't been invented. Gaara's eyes were enraged. He shivered with the urge to kill something. Naruto wanted to look away from that demon, but forced himself to stay calm and leaned even closer to the man's face. He reached out to touch his sharp jawline. The guards immediately ordered him to let go. Naruto ignored the commands and watched as the redhead instantly relaxed under his touch. It seemed his touch had a calming affect with violent side effects.

"Stop it."

Naruto's demanding voice changed something in him. It was Naruto's turn to stare with piercing cold eyes. Gaara went silent. His eyes hollowed back to their normal state. The rage was gone. His lips were slightly parted. His face was blank as if he'd fallen into a trance. Naruto lowered his hand. The guards dragged Gaara away. The man turned to look Naruto stand still. And then he disappeared through the doors of the courthouse.

Naruto stayed there for a while longer. He closed his eyes and listened to the noises of the city. He was pissed off and fed up with the mood Gaara always got him into. Nothing good seemed to come out of that man.

After a few deep breaths, he opened his blue eyes and turned to follow Gaara's steps. He made his way to the second floor, just like last time. The doors of the courtroom were already open. People had seated themselves down. Naruto stepped into the room. Every gaze there watched him make his way to the front. Hyuuga's face was priceless. It seemed that his bruised face wasn't what the man had expected to see. Naruto ignored his look of horror and took his seat. The door at the back of the room opened and let Gaara in, guards trailing him. Gaara sat down next to Naruto. Naruto glanced at him. The man's trancelike state had faded and been replaced by visible rage. Once again.

Naruto then turned to look at the judge. The man was in shock.

"Oh my god. What the hell has happened?" the man asked.

Gaara and Naruto both muttered excuses.

"I tripped."

"Car accident."

The judge wasn't convinced, but decided to let the matter be. It wasn't relevant.

"Uhm...Right. The hearing has begun", he muttered and banged his gavel.

"Prosecution, please take your stand", he continued, still eyeing the two men.

Hyuuga stood up, finally tearing his gaze away. He cleared his throat.

"In the case of Sabaku Gaara, the prosecution is demanding for capital sentence for the defendant. Evidence shows that Sabaku is to be held responsible for the murders of seven people", Hyuuga begun his speech.

"Objection. If the evidence was clear, we wouldn't be here considering re-trial", Naruto pointed out.

"Your honor, are we truly going to let these men be present here in the state they are in?" Hyuuga butted in.

"Objection overruled. Sabaku is still under conviction. Mr. Hyuuga, stay focused", the judge said.

Naruto huffed. Hyuuga grunted, but proceeded.

"Forgive me, your honor. We have a witness and a fingerprint. Sabaku has been already been convicted, but the prosecution doesn't believe the sentence to be severe enough."

"Has the witness been through psychological evaluation as requested?", the judge asked.

"Yes, you honor", Hyuuga told him.

"Please pass the results over to the defense and me", he requested.

Hyuuga took out a few documents and did as told. Naruto got slightly nervous. The piece of paper he was holding, would determine if the witness would be forced to drop out, or not. He opened the folded paper.

_'Shit'_

The witness had cleared the tests without any problems. This was an issue.

"As you can see, the witness is mentally stable and has no reason to withdraw from the process", Hyuuga pointed out.

The judge studied the document handed to him.

"I see. Thank you, please take your seat. Defense, take you stand", he then said.

Naruto stood up. He glanced at Gaara. He was supposed to hold a speech to get a re-trial to a man he wanted to burn to ashes at the moment. Not appealing in the least. But he had no choice, so he begun his speech.

"The witness might be mentally stable, but it doesn't change the fact that evidence has been held in hiding. The court can't relay on the word of a witness who has been dishonest. Also, the possible third party involved has to be investigated. As of now, there isn't enough evidence to prove Sabaku is responsible for doing any killing. The defense thus demands the previous verdict to be overruled and a new trial to be held", Naruto spoke.

The judge seemed thoughtful.

"Thank you, please take your seat. We are on a tight schedule today, so I want this done quickly. Does the prosecution have something to say?" the judge asked.

Hyuuga clenched his jaw.

"No, your honor."

The judge nodded and stood up.

"I will retreat to make the final decision", he informed and left the room.

Naruto turned to look behind him. The injured party, that could also be described as shitload of yakuzas, were all as expressionless as the last time. Naruto then turned to Gaara. The man's focus wasn't the sharpest. He just kind of stared blankly at table. Naruto didn't know what to make of it. He had nothing to say, so he didn't.

Gaara soon turned towards him. He stayed silent, but gazed Naruto with eyes so cold, hell probably froze over.

"What?" Naruto growled.

Gaara kept staring.

"Stop fucking staring if you have nothing to say", Naruto said.

Gaara smirked.

"I was just admiring that pretty shade of blue plastered all over that fucking face of yours", he blurted.

It took all of Naruto's willpower not to disembowel that freak of nature.

"You seriously have the personality of fucking sulfuric acid", Naruto hissed.

Gaara just tilted his head and smiled that twisted smile of his.

Thankfully, before Gaara had the chance to say anything, the judge returned. One more word, and Naruto would've beaten him to a pulp.

"A final decision has been made", the man said taking his stand.

Naruto tensed up. So did Gaara. This was it. The moment that would determine if Gaara would ever have the chance to walk as a free man again. At that moment, Naruto wasn't sure if wanted him to.

The judge cleared his throat.

"This was no easy decision", he started.

The seconds between that statement and the actual verdict felt like years. Naruto wanted to get out of the courtroom as quickly as possible. He was so fed up with the man next to him, it was nearly unbearable.

"But in the light of the current evidence...I will use my position to overturn the previous verdict", the judge finally declared.

Naruto's mind went blank.

"A re-trial will be held. The defendant, Sabaku Gaara, will be released on a bail of 60 million yens. Sabaku is not allowed to leave the country. The hearing is over, you may leave", the judge continued and then banged the gavel to make his verdict official.

He'd done it. He got Gaara a re-trial. He wasn't sure how he felt about it.

Naruto had to see how the people sitting behind him took the news. He wasn't shocked. A benchful of pissed off yakuzas stood up and left in a hurry.

Naruto turned to look at Gaara. Gaara turned to him. But neither spoke.

They watched each other in silence. Gaara would be taken back to prison. There was no way he had the money to bail himself out. All he could was to wait. All Naruto could do was to go home.

"I need to go. I have a flight to catch", Naruto said.

Gaara didn't respond, just kept watching him. He was about to say something, but got cut off by two guards advising him to stand up. He immediately got taken away. Naruto watched the man go. He stayed there for a while longer. The room was empty now. It seemed so much bigger now that he was alone. He felt hollow and angry. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand Gaara. And most of all, he couldn't understand himself. Why had he put so much effort into that man? Why had he made it personal? Every fiber in his body wanted to gauge out the hollow eyes that had messed up his head. He wanted to let out all the insanity slowly building up inside him. But he couldn't. He couldn't stoop as low as Gaara.

Naruto shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts. They wouldn't get him anywhere. He grabbed his possessions and walked out of the courtroom. He made his way downstairs and out of the building. He'd gotten outside and decided to sit down onto the steps of the courthouse. He took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. He'd already smoked that day, but it didn't stop him from having another one. He sat there smoking and tried to calm down.

Naruto could see the van from his position. Gaara stood outside of it, waiting for the guards to open the door. A wave of anger washed over Naruto as he watched the man. The redhead turned his gaze towards Naruto. Their eyes met, and just for a second, time seemed to slow down. Gaara's lips twisted into a mocking smirk. The moment was gone as soon as the guards pushed Gaara into the van. The vision of the man's sneering smile wouldn't leave Naruto's mind and it made him furious. He snapped.

He rose up, left all his belongings on the steps and ran.

"Wait!" Naruto hollered the guards before they had the chance to get inside.

The two men turned to see Naruto run towards the van.

"Yes?" was their simple question.

"Let's make a deal, okay? You let me into that van for five minutes and I give you this", Naruto said holding a considerable amount of money in his hand.

The two men glanced at each other. It didn't take long for them to nod and take the offered money. One of them opened the door and Naruto got inside. The door was closed behind him. Gaara sat in front of him. Upon seeing Naruto, he tilted his head curiously. He smirked again. In a flash, Naruto had lunged forward and hit Gaara in the face. He made sure he punched the already bruised side of his face to make the pain as strong as possible. Gaara's head swung to the side and stayed there. His lips were slightly parted from the shock. Before he had a chance to even react, Naruto grabbed him by the chain around his neck and flung him against the wall. Since he was shackled from head to toes, Gaara couldn't do anything. He just watched into Naruto's furious eyes. Naruto narrowed his eyes and with unimaginable rage, he smashed his head into Gaara's. The force made the back of Gaara's head collide with the van's surface. A bloody smudge appeared on the metallic wall. Gaara gritted his teeth in pain.

"Burn in hell", he hissed and watched Naruto eyes wide.

Naruto look at him despised and spat on him.

"You go fuck yourself. And while your at it, get yourself a new lawyer", he growled.

With that, he got out of the van and walked away, not looking back.

* * *

><p><strong>This chapter was a bit shorter, but only because the future happenings deserve a chapter all on their own. If you feel like making me happy, please review. Love ya.<strong>


	10. Old Acquaintances

It was 9 pm and it'd gotten dark. Naruto stepped onto the streets of his hometown. He was home. He felt safe again. He was a hundreds of miles away from Fuchu and Gaara and Naruto was thankful for that. He couldn't even begin to explain the relief he'd felt once he'd boarded the flight back home. It'd been a bit of a struggle to get through the check-in. The security hadn't been too happy about his beaten up appearance. But he'd gotten through nevertheless. The entire flight he'd thought about nothing but the freedom he'd just attained by quitting his job as Gaara's lawyer. By the end of the flight, the past week had become just a distant dream. Perhaps nightmare was a more appropriate word. Regardless of having a faint, nagging feeling in the back of his head, Naruto was sure he'd made the right decision. No money, no respect could be enough to replace his sanity. It wasn't worth losing it.

He'd gotten out of the terminal and was waiting for a cab to turn up. The traffic was terrible. It would take at least an hour for him to get home. He didn't know what to expect from Sakura once he'd get there. Would she be furious? In all truth, she had the right to be. Naruto had fucked up, big time. Something about that redhaired psycho had made Naruto close his eyes from reality. He'd messed up his own head and possibly ruined important relationships. What Sakura thought about all of this, was a matter on its own. Naruto had imagined her sitting in the kitchen, waiting for him to get home and planning numerous ways of gutting him. Actually, even getting disemboweled would've been less painful than having to explain the quantity of his fucking up.

Naruto was woken up from his thoughts as his phone rang. He checked to see the caller. He cringed, but answered.

"Hey, sweetie", he cautiously said.

"Hey. You need to get home right away", she sounded distressed.

Naruto got a bit worried.

"What's wrong?" he asked and was now determined to get a cab.

"There is a really scary looking guy sitting in our kitchen. He said he won't leave before you get here", she explained now distinctively scared.

Naruto was now panicking to get a cab. Her words had made him fear for his wife.

"Listen to me sweetie. If he won't leave, get dressed and get the hell out of that house. Promise?" Naruto told her running around to find even one damn taxi.

"Okay", Sakura complied tearing up.

"Don't cry, just get out. I'll be there soon", Naruto assured.

A free cab was parked a few feet away.

"I'll see you soon, sweetie. Just get out", Naruto told her again and ran towards the cab.

"Okay", Sakura said again and then hung up.

Naruto reached the parked car and got in. He hastily gave the address and money to get a faster ride. Naruto had difficulties to sit still. He had no idea who had gotten into his house. He had no idea what they wanted. He just hoped Sakura would be okay.

The money seemed to motivate the driver, because it only took a half an hour for the cab to pull up his driveway. Naruto paid for the ride, got out and ran towards his house. He spotted Sakura waiting outside. Upon hearing Naruto's footsteps, she turned around and rushed to him.

"Oh thank god you're here", she said and was visibly relieved.

Her relief turned into horror when she took a closer look at her husband's face.

"Jesus."

That was all she could say.

"We'll talk about it. But right now I need to get the stranger out of our house. You stay here," Naruto said and walked towards the front door.

He stopped to think if he should have something to beat the shit out of them with. He owned a gun, but it was stashed away in his wardrobe. It wouldn't be much use right now. Naruto concluded that since he was beaten up already, a few more bruises wouldn't be that bad, and opened the door. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The kitchen was just behind the corner. He cautiously walked over to see what was waiting for him. A man sat at the table, his back towards Naruto. The man had dark hair and was dressed in black from head to toes.

"Who the fuck are you?" Naruto demanded to know.

It seemed the man hadn't heard him arrive as he flinched upon hearing the blonde speak. The man slowly stood up. Naruto was preparing to break every bone in his body, but instead froze still when the man turned around.

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten me?"

Naruto didn't know what to say. He was too shocked to speak. A shitload of memories flooded his mind and he didn't know what to make of it. He didn't know whether to punch the man or embrace him.

"Kiba."

The man grinned.

"Yep. Still alive and going strong", he spoke and came closer to Naruto.

Naruto just stood there and watched him. For a minute or so he didn't know how to react. Kiba just waited. After a while of staring like an idiot, Naruto burst out laughing and grabbed the other man into a tight hug.

"Jesus, you're choking me", the man chuckled and returned the hug.

Naruto squeezed him for what felt like forever before letting go. He just watched the man in awe. He'd thought they'd never meet again. Naruto had known Kiba for years. When practicing his career outside of the law, Naruto and he had been inseparable. They'd carried out their jobs as a pair most of the time. He never could've imagined living without his friendship. But then Kiba went to prison. While he was doing time, Naruto decided to turn his life around and went to study law, leaving it all behind, Kiba included. Kiba never got out of gang life. Most likely, he still hadn't.

"I never thought I'd see you again", Naruto told, still baffled.

"You can't get rid of me that easily", he smirked.

Naruto smiled a genuine smile.

"I've missed you, dude", he admitted.

"Yeah, me too", Kiba said.

Naruto had no idea what he was doing there, but he didn't really care at the moment.

"You're still with the gang?" Naruto pried.

Kiba nodded.

"'Till the day I die", he chuckled.

Naruto shook his head.

"Yeah. I wasn't able to keep that promise."

Naruto and Kiba had gotten into the outlaw business around the same time. Their first encounters had been pretty hostile. They'd despised each other to the core. It'd lasted for months. But then they got a job that went horribly wrong. Kiba got stabbed. Vital organs got hit. He would've bled out if it weren't for Naruto, who carried him away, while running from some really pissed off, dangerous guys. Kiba got patched up and miraculously, survived. After that day, they became friends. They made the oath to stay loyal to each other and the gang, 'til the day they die.

Naruto never kept his promise. And even though it was better this way, he felt a pang of guiltiness.

"Don't worry about it. It's been years", Kiba assured him.

Naruto grunted.

"Yeah."

Kiba studied his face.

"You don't look too pretty", he stated.

Naruto brought a hand to touch the side of his face and then his neck. It still hurt.

"I know. It's nothing serious."

They were silent for a while. Naruto then realized there really had to be a reason for Kiba to have come.

"Why are you here?"

Kiba's face went dark.

"I've got some shitty news for ya", he muttered.

Naruto had absolutely no idea what to expect. They hadn't been in touch for years.

"There's some pretty nasty words going around town", Kiba begun.

Naruto waited for him to continue.

"It's about your current case", he said and turned to look at Naruto.

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Why would there be _any_ word about that?" he wondered.

Kiba sighed and took a seat at the table. Naruto seated himself next to him.

"It's well known in the underworld. Yakuza's spread even deeper around here. Even we occasionally do jobs for them. They pay good money, you know", Kiba explained.

Naruto wanted to be shocked, but he'd expected it. There really wasn't a place in this country where yakuza hadn't gotten their claws into.

"What do I have to do with this?" Naruto asked.

Kiba had a doubtful look on his face.

"You know, I'm not supposed to be here, telling you this", he admitted.

Naruto hadn't thought he was supposed to. If the rest of them learned about this, Kiba probably would get punished.

"But I couldn't just keep quiet. This is the real deal", Kiba continued.

For a second he pondered if he truly should talk anymore, but carried on anyway. He made firm eye contact with the blonde.

"Sabaku's name is a big deal under the radar. I don't know much about him, but yakuza want's him gone. As soon as the hearing got done yesterday, the word was already out. He's getting a re-trial and they don't like it", Kiba said.

Naruto was taken aback. He had no idea word traveled that fast nowadays. But Naruto still didn't understand the idea behind Kiba's words.

"That's…not surprising. But it still doesn't have anything to do with me", Naruto said.

Kiba shook his head.

"This is where it gets shitty. They know you are his lawyer and they know you are a fucking great one", he spoke.

His face turned even more serious.

"Sabaku is not the only one they want dead."

It took Naruto a considerably long time to get what Kiba was saying. But when he did, his shock was strong enough to make him physically sick. Yakuza wanted him dead, too.

"You can't be serious", was all he could say.

Kiba lowered his gaze in an apologetic manner.

"Sorry."

Naruto rose up from his seat and paced around the room. He pulled his hair in frustration. This couldn't be happening. Not only had he a pissed off murderer, but now a bunch of hitmen too? If what Kiba was saying turned out to be true, he had no idea what to do. He couldn't contact the police. He had no affiliations to the underworld, anymore. He couldn't get protection from there. And he couldn't protect himself without getting violent and that would lead to trouble.

A terrifying thought then passed his mind.

What if something happened to Sakura? He wouldn't forgive himself if that were to happen. But the yakuza had no reason to come after him if he quit being Gaara's lawyer, did they?

"I resigned from my job as Sabaku's lawyer. Shouldn't that be enough for them to forget about me?" Naruto asked Kiba.

The man clearly saw the anxious state of mind Naruto was in and cringed knowing he had to tell him the truth.

"I doubt it. They have no idea how much you know. They'll whack you just to be sure."

Naruto's panic grew stronger.

"What about my wife? She'll be safe, right?" Naruto asked in desperation.

Kiba shrugged.

"I'm really sorry blondie…I can't promise you anything."

Naruto was now both panicked and angry. Angry at himself. Had he known what it would mean to be Gaara's lawyer, he never would've accepted.

Right then, the front door opened and Sakura peeked inside. Naruto couldn't see her from his position, but could've sworn she'd been crying.

"Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura's voice asked.

Naruto wasn't, so he didn't answer right away.

"Naruto? If you're dead, I'll kill you", she said tearing up again.

Naruto sighed and concluded it'd be best to say something.

"I'm fine."

Naruto could hear Sakura step inside and close the door. Her footsteps came closer and soon she was standing in the kitchen. Her eyes went straight over to Kiba. And then to Naruto.

"I think you really need to explain something to me", she said to him.

Naruto glanced at her.

"Sweetie. I'm going to ask you nicely to leave this room", he said not giving any further explanation.

He had to get her out of the room. There was no way in hell he'd talk about being a target in a hitman's black book, if his wife was listening.

"What? No", Sakura declined.

Naruto wasn't in the mood for any resistance.

"Leave. _Now_", he ordered.

Sakura flinched. It wasn't like him to raise his voice. She looked at him eyes wide, but then turned around and left. Naruto made sure she was outside hearing range and then turned to Kiba.

"What the fuck am I gonna do?"

Kiba laid a sympathetic look on him.

"I don't know."

Naruto didn't know what to say, so they stayed silent for a while.

"You still smoke?" he then asked.

"Yeah", Kiba said and smiled crookedly.

"I'm gonna make coffee. And then smoke the shit out of a cigarette", Naruto declared and went onto doing just that.

Coffee was ready in ten minutes. He poured two cups and handed the other one to Kiba. They sat down at the kitchen table and both lit a cigarette. The room filled up with smoke. Naruto creaked open a window. It'd started raining again.

He was at a loss. He had no idea what to do. If yakuza truly wanted him dead, there was nothing he could do about it. There were tens of thousands of yakuzas. He wouldn't stand a chance.

"I'm a dead man", Naruto stated out loud.

Kiba's jaw clenched.

"I wish I could say you weren't."

Naruto took a drag from his cigarette.

"I have to do something. I have to at least try", Naruto said gritting his teeth.

He had to. But what? He had no fucking idea.

"I'd advice you to start tweaking your gun skills back to their old glory", Kiba instructed.

"Yeah", Naruto agreed.

Fights, guns and violence in general was no unfamiliar subject to him. He'd fought, shot and stabbed his way through his teenage years. But never killed a man. He'd never killed and never wanted to. But now he might not get a choice in the matter.

They'd sat there for about twenty minutes smoking cigarettes after another, when Sakura's footsteps reached Naruto's ears again. He turned to face the woman standing behind him. She wasn't pleased in any shape or form.

"You're smoking inside", she stated the obvious.

"Yeah, I am", Naruto growled, making it clear that he was not going to discuss about it.

Sakura glared at him, but then walked over to the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup. She sat down at the table, too. Naruto was surprised at how calm she was taking the situation into consideration.

Sakura glanced at Kiba. The man presented her an awkward smile.

"I guess I should apologize to you. And introduce myself. I'm Kiba", the man said and offered a handshake to Sakura.

Sakura glared the man's hand despised.

"I don't think so. Why are you in my house?" she demanded to know.

Kiba glanced at Naruto. He didn't know if he should say anything. So he didn't. Naruto was pleased. Sakura was aware that he had a less glamorous past, but he hadn't been too specific when telling her about it. He'd left out the crime part. And the gang part. And actually everything that implied he'd been in any way involved with that side of the law. Sakura didn't even know about the meanings of his tattoos. And he liked it that way.

"Kiba's an old friend of mine. We went to school together", Naruto told her.

Kiba just nodded and smiled like an idiot. Sakura studied Kiba. She narrowed her eyes, but then turned to look away.

"From law school?" she asked.

"Yeah", Naruto confirmed.

She nodded, but glanced the man once more. She asked no more questions. A kind of awkward silence followed.

"I guess I should get going", Kiba soon said and stood up.

"Thanks for the coffee, blondie. I'll see you around."

"Yeah. See ya", Naruto said and gave him a weak smile.

Kiba looked at him with worried eyes, but then turned away and left. Sakura and Naruto remained seated. Naruto took drags form his cigarette and kept silent. Sakura watched him.

"It's bad for you, you know?" she then said referring to his smoking.

Naruto emptied his lungs from smoke.

"There are worse things I could be doing", he stated and took another drag.

Sakura was displeased.

"They don't help smokers get children at the clinic", she said.

"Oh, really?" Naruto replied in a bored tone.

Sakura was pissed off, but didn't let it show. She kept watching her husband fill himself with nicotine.

"Why did you lie to me?"

Naruto turned to face her.

"What do you mean?"

Sakura tilted her head.

"That man. He's no lawyer. Why did you lie?" she asked again.

Naruto couldn't look into her eyes and keep on lying. So he looked away.

"Yes he is."

His obvious lie made Sakura snap.

"Oh fuck you. No he wasn't. He had the same exact tattoo that you have on the back of your hand. Sasuke has that tattoo, too. And that's no sweet friendship picture. So, I'll ask you again. _Why did you lie?_"

She was seriously angry. Naruto could see that, but it only made him the same way.

"Don't talk about things you don't know about", he hissed.

"Maybe I'd know if you ever talked to me", she hissed back.

Naruto glared at her.

"There is no need for you to know."

Sakura looked hurt. She stood up and gave Naruto a piercing glare.

"I don't even fucking know _you_."

She then walked away giving him the finger. Naruto found it childish. But repeated the gesture anyway.

He was left there alone. Not a single thing was fine at the moment. As much as Sakura angered him, he wanted to keep her safe. And he didn't know if he could do that. He wanted to talk to somebody. Somebody who'd understand the situation. Somebody who'd understand in how deep shit he was in.

He hesitated for a moment, but then took out his phone and made a call. It didn't take long for it to be answered.

"Hn."

Sasuke at his finest.

"I'm in town", Naruto informed.

"Hn."

Naruto rolled his eyes. He already regretted calling.

"Don't 'hn' me", he said.

He didn't. Instead he said nothing. Naruto was so ready to hang up, but fought against it.

"Are you gonna say something or am I just wasting my time here?"

Sasuke sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. What is it?" he then said.

"I need to see you. The Place in ten. Be there", Naruto said and hung up.

He put out his cigarette, gulped down the rest of his coffee and headed out. He didn't bother informing Sakura.

After fifteen minutes he was sitting at the The Place, sipping a beer. Sasuke was late. Naruto checked the time. It was nearing midnight, but Naruto didn't mind. He had nowhere to be the following day and he was going to enjoy that freedom to the fullest.

The bar's front door opened. Sasuke stepped inside. Naruto glanced at him, but turned away again. Sasuke walked over to the counter and took a seat next to him. The man ordered a drink and waited for it to arrive before speaking.

"What is it?"

Naruto turned to face him. The look of horror plastered on his face indicated he hadn't seen the state of the blonde's face right away.

"Oh my fucking god. What the hell happened?" he blurted.

Naruto didn't even know where to begin. Actually, he didn't know if he should even tell him. But he had the need to get it all out, so he spoke.

"I need you to promise me that not a word of our conversation gets around."

Sasuke slowly nodded.

"Fine. Now tell me, what the fuck happened to your face?"

Naruto sighed.

"Sabaku happened."

He had to make sure he wouldn't call the man by his first name anymore.

Sasuke's hands clenched into fists.

"I'm gonna fucking kill that guy", he muttered seemingly angered.

Naruto chuckled.

"Don't worry. He doesn't look much prettier than me."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Are you telling me you got into fistfight with a locked up homicidal maniac?" he asked.

"Yeap."

Sasuke seemed doubtful.

"How is that even possible? Isn't he supposed to be under surveillance all the time?"

Naruto had to laugh at his own stupidity.

"I told them to keep him unrestrained. Isn't that fucking stupid?" he said still chuckling.

Sasuke was horrified.

"You are a complete idiot."

"That I am, yes. And that is why I got that freak a re-trial and gotten myself on yakuza's list of people to whack", Naruto continued.

The whole thing was too fucked up to even be taken seriously anymore.

Sasuke was at a loss for words. Naruto's face got serious as he realized he'd have to be more specific.

"I saw Kiba today."

Sasuke's face went dark. He'd never liked the man.

"He told me that yakuza has a price on Sabaku's head. Mine, too", Naruto muttered.

There was absolutely nothing Sasuke could've said to that.

"So now I'm just pretty much waiting to die. We'll see which one get's the pleasure; Sabaku or yakuza", Naruto murmured.

Sasuke hadn't recovered from the shock. He just stared. He then turned to grab his drink and downed it in one sitting. He cringed at the aftertaste.

"I don't want to be an asshole, but I told ya, didn't I?" he had to say.

Naruto glared into his onyx eyes.

"Then don't be", he said and finished his drink.

He ordered another one.

"I don't really care about myself at this point anymore. I'm more worried about Sakura", he told.

"She has nothing to do with this. I don't think they'll go after her", Sasuke assured.

Naruto snorted.

"We are talking about the goddamned mafia here. Nothing can be taken for granted", he said.

Sasuke knew he was right, but wanted wanted to comfort him.

"She'll be fine."

Naruto shook his head.

"There is no need to sugarcoat this. Dude, I'm going to get killed by the mob. And if not them, by a mass murderer. Either way, there is no guarantee my wife will be safe."

Sasuke sighed. There was no point in trying to be positive about this. He ordered another drink.

"Yeah, okay, you're right. I'm not gonna lie. You're in deep shit. But you are perfectly capable of defending yourself", he said.

Naruto laughed.

"C'mon. A shitload of yakuzas versus me. I wonder, which one will become extinct?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.

Sasuke didn't want to lie, but he also didn't want to say the truth, so he kept silent. So did Naruto. For a few minutes they just drank quietly.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to ya", Naruto finally said.

Sasuke turned to look at him.

"I'm sorry I was an asshole", he apologized.

Naruto lifted up his fist. Sasuke gently bumped his own against it.

"We cool?" Sasuke wanted to confirm.

"Yeah", Naruto said with a smile.

His smile soon faded away.

"You know...when we left the gang, I started to believe I wouldn't die like this. That I'd die as an old man, in my own bed", Naruto said in a slightly sad mood.

Sasuke's normally harsh eyes softened.

"I'm not afraid of dying. I've never been. Back in the day, getting killed was a daily possibility. I just hate that I thought I'd gotten away from it", he continued.

He then laughed bitterly.

"I actually thought I could run away from it all. My whole past. Isn't that fucking ridiculous?"

He was silent for a while.

"That's why I pushed you away, too. You are the only thing left from my past", he said, nearly whispered.

Sasuke watched him speechless. He felt a stab in his heart. It hurt to know that Naruto had wanted to get rid of him. But he also understood.

The man dragged his stool closer to Naruto and grabbed the blonde into his arms. It was a strong, sincere embrace.

"You fucking moron", he whispered into his ear.

"You are never getting away. I won't let you", he continued.

Naruto returned the hug and held on tightly.

"I won't let them get you", Sasuke promised.

It was a promise Naruto knew the man couldn't keep, but it calmed him down nevertheless.

They pulled apart. Naruto smiled for the other man.

"Thanks", he said.

There was nothing more to say, so Sasuke changed the subject.

"So, you kissed I guy, now did ya?", he said and smiled a crooked smirk.

Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, I did. Twice actually", he admitted.

"Switching sides, then?" Sasuke snickered.

"No", Naruto said and stuck out his tongue.

"Was he at least cute?" Sasuke pried.

Naruto smirked in amusement.

"Yeap", he said and winked his eye.

Sasuke couldn't help but to burst out laughing.

"Good, good. Don't tell Sakura. She'll go green with jealousy", he advised.

Naruto rolled his eyes. Though, Sasuke was probably right.

"Quite probable", Naruto agreed.

Sasuke got more serious.

"What are you gonna do about Sabaku?" he asked.

"Well...the final hearing was today. After I left, I bribed the guards to let me inside the transportation van, kicked Sabaku's ass and told him to get a new lawyer" Naruto told.

Normally Sasuke would've been shocked, but more shocking things had already been said, so he wasn't really surprised about anything anymore.

"So...you're not working for him anymore?" Sasuke confirmed.

"No."

"I'm glad."

Naruto nodded.

"Me too."

Sasuke downed his drink. So did Naruto.

"Listen up blondie. Tomorrow we're going shooting", Sasuke declared.

Naruto tilted his head.

"We need to get your aim back in shape. You're gonna need it", Sasuke said and stood up.

"Sure, why not", Naruto complied and rose.

They made their way outside. Once there, Naruto took out his cigarettes and placed one between his lips. Sasuke glanced him from the corner of his eye.

"You've started smoking again?" he then asked.

Naruto stopped to look at the cigarette pack in his hand. He hand't really thought about it, but Sasuke was probably right.

"Yeah, I guess I have."

He then lit the cigarette and took a long drag. Why had he ever even quit? It was bad for his health, but that didn't matter much under the current circumstances.

Sasuke was about to protest, but left it unsaid.

"I'll bum one", he said instead.

Naruto looked at him vaguely surprised, but handed him one. Sasuke lit the cigarette and filled his lungs with smoke. He actually moaned out loud.

"Jesus. Nicotine is a gift from heaven", he said.

Sasuke had quit smoking a few years ago. He'd been nearly a chain smoker. Naruto remembered how difficult it'd been for him. It'd involved a lot of OCD, crying and fits of rage, but in the end, he'd made it. But judging by the man's reaction to his old best friend, it wouldn't last much longer. Naruto chuckled. He'd always thought that Sasuke didn't look complete without a cigarette. And there he was again. The complete package, the one that Naruto had missed.

"I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow, moron", Sasuke informed.

Naruto had to smile. As odd as it sounds, getting insulted by Sasuke felt nice. As if everything was okay.

"Yeah. Sleep tight, prick."

Naruto watched Sasuke walk away into the dark. He left behind a puff of smoke. The smoke danced in the air, before disappearing.

Naruto turned around and went home. It was time to sleep the shitty day away. And prepare for the next one.

When Naruto woke up the following day, it was past noon already. Naruto was surprised Sakura hadn't woken him up. He assumed that she was still pissed as hell.

For a few minutes, Naruto stayed in bed and enjoyed the peaceful feeling he had. He hadn't forgotten about yesterday. It was all fresh in his mind. But nevertheless, he felt at ease. There was nowhere he had to be, nothing he had to do. Apart from meeting Sasuke, of course, but he didn't think of it as an obligation. He could've stayed in bed all day, but forced himself to get up. He didn't bother with putting on clothes, so he walked out of the bedroom in a pair of boxers. He stretched himself awake on his way to the kitchen. He had an immediate need for coffee, so once he got to the kitchen he went straight away to making it. He'd loaded the coffeemaker, when a familiar, deep voice spoke behind him.

"Seriously? No clothes? It's almost 2 pm."

Naruto startled so violently, he almost fell over. He turned to look behind him.

"_Oh my fucking god, you prick. _I almost had a heart attack."

Sasuke snickered. He sat there at the kitchen table, reading today's paper. He had his glasses on. They made him look like an idiot. It was reassuring to know that even pretty boy looked like an ass sometimes.

"Fuck you", Naruto hissed and leaned against the kitchen counter to recover from his shock. Sasuke just chuckled.

"You sadist", Naruto said and gave him the finger.

"Yeah, love you too", Sasuke said shaking his head and turning back to the paper.

"How long have you been here?" Naruto asked watching the coffee slowly drip into the glass carafe.

"A couple of hours", he answered not looking away from the paper.

"Two hours? Have you been reading that paper for two hours?" Naruto asked.

"Nah. I also watered your dying plants and watched you sleep", he said turning the page.

Naruto poured himself a cup.

"You sicko", he said and sat across Sasuke.

"Aren't we all?" he said folding up the paper and dropping it on the table.

Naruto lit a cigarette. He offered Sasuke one, but the man decline. It took him about twenty-five seconds to regret that decision and ask for one anyway. So they both sat there smoking.

"Is Sakura home?" Naruto asked.

"I haven't seen her", Sasuke replied.

Right after he'd said that, the front door opened. Sakura got to the kitchen. She gave Naruto a displeased glare. Naruto wasn't sure if it was for the smoking or just for the love of it. Sasuke on the other hand got a sweet smile.

"Hey, Sasuke", she said.

"Hn", was all he said, not even sparing a glance in her direction.

Sakura rolled her eyes, but didn't push it.

"When you're done with that slow suicide of yours, I'd like to talk to you", Sakura told Naruto.

Naruto sighed, but put his cigarette out and stood up. He gave Sasuke a look of despair and then followed Sakura to the bedroom.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked as he went over to his wardrobe.

"What happened to your face?" she asked and sat onto the bed.

Naruto's movements froze just for a second. He'd forgotten that this discussion actually had to happen.

"I told you. My client got violent", he said and pulled on a t-shirt.

"Why?" Sakura pried.

Now that was the part Naruto wouldn't tell her.

"He's a homicidal maniac. That's why", Naruto told her, throwing on a pair of grey jeans.

"Was it a onetime thing?" she wanted to know.

"No."

Naruto already knew what she would say next, so he informed her of what he'd done about it.

"Don't worry. I already resigned."

She relaxed slightly upon hearing his words. But she then tensed up again.

"Why did you lie to me yesterday?" Sakura asked.

Naruto stopped what he was doing and sighed.

"I didn't, okay? Please let it go. Why would I lie to you?"

Sakura glanced at him.

"Because you have something to hide."

Naruto shook his head, hiding all traces of lying.

"No, I don't."

Sakura was ready to start yelling again, but remembered they weren't alone, and decided against it. Since neither one of them had anything to say, Naruto walked away. He got back to the kitchen and drank the rest of his coffee in a few gulps.

"Okay. Let's go", Naruto said and got Sasuke to rise up.

They made their way outside and hopped into Sasuke's car.

"Are we going to the police department's firing range?" Naruto asked once they got on the road.

"Yeah. I haven't been there for a while", Sasuke told.

Naruto nodded.

"I haven't shot in a long time", Naruto realized.

Sasuke chuckled.

"We'll see how rusty you are."

Naruto made a face. He'd show the bastard.

And he did. Two hours later, they were still at the range and Naruto hadn't missed a mark. He'd forgotten how good it felt to hit the target. It was almost better than sex. An odd thing, it was; the urge to shoot holes into things. He guessed it was something that men were born with.

"Rusty my ass. In your face, asshole", Naruto sneered.

Sasuke grunted.

"You're just a lucky son of a bitch", he muttered.

His own practice had been shittier than he'd expected. He'd only missed four marks, but it was for too many. He was pissed at himself for it. And for losing to Naruto. He was quite competitive. Especially when it came to the blonde.

"Don't start crying", Naruto sneered.

"Shut up, moron", he said and fired the gun.

It hit, but not accurately enough.

"You're such a baby", Naruto chuckled.

The blonde lowered his gun and put it away.

"You wanna get a drink?" Naruto asked his friend.

"Sure", the man complied and fired again.

It missed. Sasuke grunted.

"Let's go before you blow somebody's brains out", Naruto said and turned to walk away.

Sasuke watched the blonde go. He moved to follow his friend, but after a couple of steps, he stopped. Sasuke turned to see the target. He aimed once more and pulled the trigger.

Bullseye.

A while later they were sitting at The Place again. Naruto was in a miraculously good mood. Taking into consideration the fact that he had no idea when he'd get shot, stabbed or run over, it truly was miraculous. Coming to terms with yakuza wanting him dead had been unexpectedly quick and painless. The fear of getting killed felt just like it'd felt years ago, so there wasn't really anything new to accept. He didn't want to waste his time on being frightened. Instead, he sat there with Sasuke, drinking a beer. It was just like old times. Getting tipsy, talking about shit that didn't really matter.

"So, have you found a girl yet?" Naruto pried from Sasuke.

It was a question Naruto asked on a regular basis. Every few months, give or take. And every time, the answer was the same.

"Nah."

Naruto shook his head.

"I don't get how you want to be alone year after year. I can't remember you having a girlfriend, like, ever", he said.

Now that he thought back, he couldn't remember Sasuke ever talking about having a girl. Or even fucking one. It made him wonder about something.

"Are you still a virgin?" Naruto blurted.

Sasuke nearly choked on his beer.

"What? No!" he said coughing violently.

"Aw, aren't you sensitive? Such a prude", Naruto sneered and watched Sasuke keep on choking.

The man finally caught his breath.

"I'm just not a prick, going around telling everything", he hissed and coughed a couple of more times.

"No, it's something else entirely that makes you a prick", Naruto chuckled.

Sasuke gave him the finger.

"Keep on doing that and I'll sit on it", the blonde threatened.

"You're disgusting", Sasuke said.

Naruto laughed. He felt at ease. It'd been a long time since he last had been so comfortable around Sasuke. Only now he realized how far away exactly he'd pushed the man. He felt sad thinking about all the great moments he probably had missed because of his own stupidity. But then again, it was pointless to dwell in any kind of self-pity. Instead, he wanted to concentrate on that exact moment and the man beside him. He'd known Sasuke for so long. Twenty years. No, more actually. Basically his whole life. He knew him inside and out. At least, that's what it felt like. It wasn't actually possible to know anyone that well, but it felt like it. Apart from one small thing. A teeny tiny thing. Something he'd wanted to ask for years, but just never had.

"Sasuke?" Naruto said to get his attention.

"Yeah?" he asked turning to face Naruto.

Naruto looked deep into his eyes to make sure he couldn't look away.

"Are you gay?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

And just like that, it was over. He'd asked, the other one answered and they didn't have to take the matter any further. Naruto sighed.

"I'm hungry."

Sasuke smiled.

"Yeah, me too."

It was later that evening and Naruto sat on the couch watching television. He'd sat there for a few hours already. The TV hadn't much to offer, but he watched it anyway. It'd been ages since he last had the chance to just be lazy and now that he had, he would make the best of it. Sakura had come to sit with him at some point, too. For a while they'd watched the TV silently, holding each other, like the fight had never happened. Most of the time that was how they made up. It was better than talking. That never worked for them very well. His wife was now in the kitchen, making them a late supper. She liked to cook. She was good at it. Naruto cooked occasionally, but his cooking was mostly terrible, so he let Sakura handle that department. When it came to chores, Naruto's speciality was taking out the trash. That was pretty much the only thing he could without fucking up. Sakura didn't let him wash dishes anymore. After he'd destroyed an entire set of plates, Sakura had banned him from the kitchen for a week. And given a lifelong ban for washing a single dish. Doing laundry he'd forbidden himself. Five times in a row getting pink laundry instead of white had made him stay away from that horrible thing they called a washer.

Naruto got woken up from his lazy trance when Sakura peeked into the living room.

"Sweetie", she said to get his attention.

Naruto turned to face her.

"Yeah?"

Sakura smiled kindly.

"I just wanted to say I'm glad you resigned. It wasn't doing any good for you", she said.

Naruto hadn't thought about Gaara all day. But his wife's words made images of the redhead fill his head. An odd feeling stirred inside him. He didn't know what it was exactly, but it gave him difficulties to breathe. He pushed the feeling away. He didn't want Sakura to notice it.

"Yeah, me too", he said and forced a smile.

She disappeared back to the kitchen leaving Naruto alone. The odd feeling came back. It lingered for a while, but went away eventually. He'd gotten near dozing off, when suddenly there was a knock on the front door. Naruto checked the time. It was 11 pm. Whoever it was knocking on their door, wouldn't be welcome at this hour. Naruto heard Sakura open the door. He couldn't hear any voices, so he turned to look in the door's direction. He couldn't see behind the corner. He heard footsteps nearing towards him. Sakura appeared in the living room doorway.

"I think it's for you."

She looked kind of taken aback. Naruto tensed up. He had a bad feeling about this.

He got off the couch and made his way towards the door. He went around the corner that'd blocked his view and lifted his gaze to see the visitor.

His heart stopped beating and all color drained from his face.

"Gaara."

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><p><strong>Ooooh...plot twist. Well, not so much. I guess we all saw it coming. But nonetheless, possibly exciting. Please review, my sweeties. <strong>


	11. The Moth and the Flame

**Hello, lovelies. I have a new chapter for ya~ I wanna thank you for all the reviews, I very much appreciate every single one of them. You should see me sit here and smile like an idiot while reading them. So thank you.**

**Anyway, here's a new chapter. Enjoy.**

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><p>The universe holds countless amounts of things that cannot be explained in words. Falling in love. Being pained by the death of a close one. Feeling summer rain hit your skin. The fear of unknown. The laugh of a child and the feeling of loneliness. These are all things that words cannot explain. But Naruto now discovered a whole new level of unexplainable.<p>

All the words in the world combined wouldn't come even close to describing the wave of rage that washed over Naruto as soon as he saw those hollow eyes make contact with his. Those sick fucking eyes that he'd hoped to never see again. Every fiber in his body wanted to gauge them out of that fucking twisted head of his. He wanted to beat him unrecognizable.

It only took a split of a second for Naruto to lunge forward and grab the redhead by his throat with a grip so strong, it instantly became impossible for him to breathe. In a very violent manner Naruto shoved Gaara against the outer wall of is house. The man's head made a sickly, cracking sound when making impact with the white brick wall. Naruto's clenched fist landed a powerful hit on the man's already bruised face. His act of violence had to be painful, but Gaara didn't let it show. Naruto's growing sadistic side needed to get a reaction out of him, so he grabbed the redheads injured hand and thrust it against the wall. As Gaara hissed in pain, Naruto knew it'd paid off. He then tightened his grip around the man's throat and pushed the side of his face against the wall.

"What are you doing at my house, you sick fuck?" The slowly tightening chokehold on his throat made Gaara finally cough in the need for oxygen. "It's kinda late for you to come crawling back. My patience has run out", Naruto said and was ready to crush the man's airways.

Gaara's breathing was now so pathetic, it made Naruto chuckle. His gloating was cut off when Gaara kicked him in the abdomen with all he got. It hurt like hell and Naruto had to let go. He didn't waste time on recovering from the kick and was ready to assault the man again, but was stopped by the redhead's words.

"Stop. I need to talk to you", he said breathing heavily.

Choking hadn't left him as weakened as it had Naruto, but the blonde was pleased nonetheless for making the man suffer. Naruto was about to dismiss the man's words and just kill him with bare hands, but a strange glow behind his hollow eyes made the blonde reconsider. "Stay there. Don't you dare move an inch", Naruto said.

Naruto didn't give him a chance to reply as he turned around and dashed inside, closing the door behind him. Sakura watched him run down the hallway and up the stairs to their bedroom. She was confused. She didn't know what was happening, but judging by the look on Naruto's face, it couldn't be good. She hesitated for a second, but then followed the blonde. She went up the stairs, approached the bedroom and cautiously peeked inside. What she saw turned her confusion into fear. There in the middle of the room stood her husband, loading a gun. Sakura was afraid to say anything.

Naruto turned towards her.

"Don't come outside", he told her and then rushed out of the room, leaving his wife alone. He made his way back downstairs and to the front door. With force he pushed the door open and immediately turned the gun towards Gaara. He perfected his aim on the man's head and took off the safety.

"You have thirty seconds to explain why you're here or I'll blast your brains out."

A vague expression of surprise flashed in Gaara's eyes. To make sure Gaara knew he was serious, Naruto took a step closer and pressed the gun's barrel against his temple. Gaara watched him silently for a while.

"You're down to ten seconds", the blonde reminded and slightly shoved his head with the gun.

"I need you."

Naruto was taken aback by his words. His surprise distracted him enough for Gaara to have the chance to make a move to get the gun. His movements helped Naruto regain his focus. Gaara got pinned against the wall again, the gun still pointed at his head.

"Don't even think about it. There is absolutely no reason for me not to shoot you", he hissed.

"I need you", Gaara repeated.

"Well you should've thought about that before pissing me off", Naruto said.

Gaara looked into his eyes. There was something different behind his hollow eyes. Naruto had no word for it, but it was confusing to see _anything_ in those eyes.

"I need to show you something", Gaara told him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"You'll see if you come with me."

Naruto laughed out loud. He had no reason to believe a word he said. And absolutely no reason to actually go anywhere with that maniac.

"You don't seriously think I'm going anywhere with you? I value my life more than that", the blonde said.

Gaara smirked. "You know you will."

Naruto was filled with rage once again. There it was again. That sick, twisted smirk that took away the sanity of those who had to see it. Naruto wanted nothing more than to shoot the smirking son of a bitch in the face.

"Shut the fuck up", he growled and was ready to pull the trigger.

"Wait", Gaara said as he noticed the blonde's intention.

Naruto waited.

"You'll regret it if you don't come. I need you", the man said for the third time.

Naruto's face softened when he realized how much it took for a man like Gaara to say words like that. He wasn't supposed to feel any attachment to a mass murderer, but as much as he hated to admit, Gaara was right. If he didn't go, he would spend the rest of his life wondering about it. He was trapped in that man's hollow eyes. He couldn't say no.

"Fuck", the blonde hissed and lowered the gun. He was prepared to use it in case Gaara decided to get violent. But the man stayed calm showing no indication of going crazy.

"What the hell do you want from me?" Naruto asked and took out a cigarette. He placed it between his lips and lit it up. He took a long drag, then blowing out a puff of smoke. Gaara watched him. "I need to show you something", he then said.

"Yeah. You told me already. Give me one good reason why I should help you", Naruto demanded and took another drag.

"Because you need me", he answered. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"No. I just need to get away from you", he said.

Gaara tilted his head. "Yakuza wants you dead", he said. Naruto didn't even look in his direction. "I know."

Gaara moved slowly away from the wall. Cautious of the gun in the blonde's hand, he stopped to stand behind him. He was very close. Naruto could almost feel him, but then again not. His grip on the gun tightened. He slightly flinched as a hand came from behind and reached to take away the cigarette between his lips. Naruto turned around to face Gaara. The man watched him silently as he took a drag from Naruto's smoke. Naruto watched him slowly let the smoke slip through his red lips. It was sort of mesmerizing.

"If you intend to survive, you need me", Gaara spoke in a low, quiet voice. It was almost soft, but Naruto knew he wasn't capable of a having a voice of that kind.

Naruto thought about his words. Gaara was right. But that didn't mean he was ready to give in to a lunatic.

"Dying can't be much worse than having to spend time with you", he sneered and snatched his cigarette back. Gaara clenched his hand into a fist in irritation, but soon relaxed. He gently pushed Naruto against the wall. The gun instantly got pressed against his chest.

"I still have this thingy. So if I were you, I wouldn't get too comfortable", Naruto explained and blew smoke into his face. Gaara was getting visibly irritated, but he didn't let it get through.

"You won't shoot me", he said very confident.

Naruto chuckled.

"You have no idea what I'd like to do to you."

Gaara smirked.

"Sounds dirty."

"Fuck you."

"Still dirty."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. He knew the man was trying his everything to piss him off. But he didn't want to let the man control him that way, so he forced himself to keep calm. And if that didn't work, he could always shoot him.

"I'll make a deal with you. You come with me and I'll keep you safe", Gaara then suggested.

Naruto had to stop to think. Keeping off the yakuza was impossible on his own. It was pretty much impossible even if he got help, but the chances might increase. It wasn't a bad offer. Logically speaking. But since it seemed that his logic jumped out of the window when he was around Gaara, Naruto wasn't sure it was a good idea. Choosing either way, it would be risky. He'd gotten through with his cigarette when he made a decision.

"Fine. I'll go with you. But this baby is coming with me", Naruto said and raised the gun. Gaara nodded."You wait there", Naruto instructed and turned to go back inside.

Sakura was waiting in the kitchen. Her face was painted with worry. She sat at the kitchen table and upon hearing Naruto enter, she stood up. Naruto walked over to her and seated her back down. He crouched in front of her.

"Listen. There's somewhere I need to go", he explained.

Sakura's face darkened. "Who is that man?" she asked.

Naruto didn't know what to tell her. If she knew that a possible mass murderer was standing in front of their house, she'd lose it. But Naruto had a feeling the 'old friend' excuse wouldn't be convincing enough in the current situation.

"I don't want to lie to you, so I won't tell you."

Sakura wanted to be angry, but couldn't bring herself to be. The seriousness of the situation was apparent and even though she didn't know what was happening, she was smart enough to understand, it wasn't the time for questions. So, she didn't ask. Sakura gave a weak nod and kept her gaze on the floor. Naruto said nothing more. He stood up and with a sigh, he turned away and walked out. Gaara stood there waiting.

"Walk", Naruto ordered Gaara and at gunpoint the man did as told.

The man turned behind the corner of the house and Naruto followed him. What waited behind the corner was enough of a shock for Naruto to lower the gun. Right there, parked on his driveway, was a brand new Maybach 62. A car worth more than his house. By the time Naruto woke up from his wonderment, Gaara had gotten inside the car already. Naruto shook his head a couple of times and walked to the vehicle. He got in and seated himself down. He then turned to look at Gaara. The man was hunched over under the steering wheel. It took the blonde a couple of minutes to realize what was happening. Gaara was hot-wiring.

"Oh my fucking god. You just got out of prison and the first thing you do, is steal a Maybach?"

Gaara didn't answer. The engine roared to life. Gaara lifted himself up, glanced at Naruto and then wordlessly pulled off the driveway. Once they'd driven to the other side of the city, Naruto realized he had no idea where they were going. "How far are we going?" Naruto asked with a grunt.

Gaara didn't look his way. "Three hundred miles east."

Naruto was sort of shocked that he hadn't even thought about the possibility they might be traveling far. He kind of wanted to punch himself, but concluded it was too late to whine about it. Naruto glanced out the window. They'd gotten to the highway. It seemed Gaara wasn't one to care about the speed limits.

"You really thought that a Maybach was the best choice?" Naruto had to wonder.

Gaara didn't respond. Naruto wasn't surprised. He couldn't understand why stealing a car had struck as a good idea to him. Suddenly, a realization hit Naruto. He turned to look at the man beside him."Why aren't you in prison?" he asked.

Gaara was silent for a while, but then turned to look at him.

"If I have enough money to hire you as my lawyer, I have enough money to bail myself out", he said and then turned back to the road.

Naruto rolled his eyes. He didn't exactly appreciate the implication to his high salary, but didn't make an issue out of it. He was thoughtful when it came to Gaara's wealth. Why did a man who'd disappeared for years have such massive amounts of money? There was also something else he'd gotten around to wonder about. There were six whole years of Gaara's life that weren't recorded in any way or form. No missing person report was ever filed, either. Naruto couldn't help but to wonder why nobody had missed him. He did have family, at least according to the file info. And even more confusing was that at the time of the arrest there hadn't been much difficulties to find the man. Why had he left his hiding? Especially at a time like that. He had to have known they were after him.

Naruto stared at the man beside him. He wanted to ask so many questions. There was so much he wanted to know. But he couldn't ask. Gaara wouldn't tell. Naruto knew that.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" he asked instead.

"No."

Naruto grunted.

"Why?"

Gaara didn't reply.

"Are we just gonna sit here silent for hours?" Naruto asked. Gaara stayed silent. Naruto wasn't sure why he even bothered to speak. It was like talking to a goat. All you got was silence and a blank stare. Perhaps a weird noise if you were lucky. The man was so frustrating. Naruto was already regretting going with him. There was no guarantee that getting killed by yakuza was any worse than this. Actually, there was no guarantee he wouldn't get killed by the redhead. For all he knew, they might've been driving to a remote location, perfect for strangling and dismembering a person. Naruto had to be losing his grip on sanity for going along.

"I'm not gonna kill you", Gaara suddenly spoke.

Naruto turned to look at him. Had he thought out loud?

"I'd rip your head off before you'd even have the chance", Naruto growled.

Gaara chuckled. He said no more. Neither did Naruto. The next thirty minutes were silent. Naruto got the chance to think about everything that'd happened in just a short amount of time. He'd been losing his grip on the perfectly polished life he'd worked hard to attain for some time now. But in the last week or so, it seemed that everything just collapsed like the twin towers. Suddenly and brutally. He'd been surprisingly calm. Perhaps he hadn't really processed it all yet. Or maybe he'd just gotten too used to shit going down. It didn't matter, really. The situation was what it was. Focusing on whining about it wouldn't change a damn thing. All he could do was to give his everything in order to stay alive. A piece of cake, ain't it?

"Make a stop at the next gas station", Naruto said after a whole lot of silence.

It took a while, but Gaara nodded. After a few miles, he pulled over to the parking lot of a gas station. Naruto got out of the car and watched Gaara drive next to a gas tank. The man got out and moved to fuel the car. There he stood, fueling a stolen Maybach like it was nothing. Naruto wondered how long would it take for the cops to find them. The owner must've reported it stolen. Nobody buys a car that costs half a million and doesn't lose it when it gets stolen.

Naruto tore his gaze away and stepped inside the service station. A bell attached to the door announced of his arrival. The clerk turned to see him. Naruto nodded in acknowledgment.

"Two packs of Marlboro's red and a coffee", Naruto said and made his way to the counter.

He took out his wallet and was ready to pay, but stopped to think.

"Actually make it two", he said and paid to the man behind the counter.

The clerk nodded and took the offered money. Naruto took the packs of cigarettes and poured two takeaway cups of coffee. He grabbed a couple of small containers of milk and then walked out. He made his way to the most ridiculous choice of cars to steal and took his seat. Gaara was already behind the wheel. Naruto offered a cup coffee to him. Gaara looked at it for a while, but then took what he was offered. He took off the lid and stared into the cup slightly displeased. Naruto sighed and handed over milk. Gaara happily took it and poured it into the black liquid.

"Thanks", the redhead muttered.

He took a sip and let out a vaguely happy sigh.

"It's been seven fucking years since I last got proper coffee", he said.

Naruto tilted his head and watched curiously the other man. It was odd to see him as a civilian. No inmate clothing, no cuffs and chains. No prison. Naruto couldn't imagine what it was like to be in prison for that long. He'd never been convicted of anything. There'd been a few close calls, but a couple of days in jail was the worse he'd gotten. Mainly for public drinking and flipping off an officer. But even then he'd been a minor, so it hadn't been a big deal. Actually it was a miracle he'd never been sentenced to prison. It seemed that he was lucky after all.

They got back on the road. According to Naruto's calculations, it would take nearly seven hours for them to reach their destination. Although, with the speed Gaara was going, it might not take that long. By the time the speedometer read 85 miles per hour, Naruto had to buckle up to keep himself from worrying about getting killed. If they didn't get pulled over, it'd be a miracle. And if that happened, they'd both be going to prison. He had a hunch that over speeding in a stolen Maybach was very much illegal. They'd been driving for a couple of hours when Naruto noticed Gaara getting drowsy. The man tried hard to keep his concentration by adding even more speed, but after a few minutes, he'd always have to shake his head to stay awake.

"You tired?" Naruto asked and glanced at the redhead.

"Nah."

Bullshit. He was tired as hell. One stubborn bastard he was.

"When have you last slept?"

Gaara sighed in frustration. He ran his hand through his flaming red hair. "Not since before solitary."

Naruto was shocked. He was sitting in a car going nearly 90 miles per hour, driven by a lunatic that hadn't slept in days. If this wasn't fucking dangerous, then nothing is.

"Turn right over there", Naruto told him. Gaara glanced at him.

"No."

Naruto pulled out the gun he'd shoved in the back of his pants.

"Yes", Naruto said and emphasized his demand by flashing the gun.

Gaara gritted his teeth, but had no choice. At the turn he roughly turned the steering wheel, not bothering to slow down that much. They now were on a small road leading deep into the woods. There was a large forest area surrounding them.

"Drive", Naruto told.

Gaara did as told. After ten minutes or so, Naruto concluded they were far enough from the highway.

"Here's fine", the blond informed. Gaara stopped the car and turned the engine off. It was silent. They were deep enough in the woods for the noises of the highway to die out. Naruto turned towards Gaara.

"You need to sleep", he said.

Gaara just looked at him like he was crazy.

"I'm not sleeping with an armed asshole sitting next to me", Gaara grunted.

Naruto's eye twitched at his words. But he had to admit, he wouldn't sleep either if it were the other way around. But he hadn't much choice when it came to carrying a gun. Being in the same car with Gaara required it, as did the fact that yakuza was chasing him. Double the risk of getting into a shitty situation.

"I'm not gonna go unarmed either", Naruto said.

"Then I'm not gonna sleep. I'd rather die from sleep deprivation than get shot by you", the redhead informed.

Naruto was getting frustrated. "I really wanna bash your head in", he said gritting his teeth.

"Yeah? Please do and I have a real reason to kill you", Gaara hissed.

Naruto was getting to the point of blowing off his head. He could see it in his mind. And it was glorious. But he couldn't give into any animalistic behavior. So instead, he had to be content with just emotional abuse.

"God I wish yakuza gets your head. Cause I ain't dirtying my hands because of someone like you", Naruto said. Gaara was getting pissed off once again.

"If I wasn't insane before, you certainly have made me", Gaara said clenching his hand into a fist.

His urge to pound Naruto's face into a bloody pulp was obvious, but he was struggling against it with everything he got. Naruto was amused by the way he was able to rip apart the man's ice cold façade. It was a personal victory like none else.

"Trust me. You being insane, has nothing to do with me", Naruto sneered. Gaara gritted his teeth in silence for a while. He soon couldn't contain himself anymore and threw a powerful punch at the window on his side. The glass cracked. Naruto stayed quiet, so did Gaara. After a while, the redhead was so close to ripping of the blonde's head, he had to get out. Naruto watched Gaara kick open the car door and getting out, slamming the door shut behind him.

The situation wasn't going in a good direction and they both knew it. If it went on any longer, at least one them would end up dead. Naruto sighed and put the gun away. Gaara was obviously dead tired and pissed as hell. Naruto wasn't that much more perky or happy. Not a good combination. Naruto had to question why he'd agreed to come along when it it obviously was a horrible idea. Naruto grunted in anger and got out of the car as well. Gaara had wandered a few feet away. Naruto watched the man kick the trunk of an old, sturdy tree. Naruto had to roll his eyes. It looked childish. It _was_ childish. They both were.

"Stop acting like an idiot", Naruto said. Gaara laughed. It was a sick, ironic laugh.

"Idiot? Me?" he said and turned to look at Naruto. He slowly walked towards him. A twisted smile had formed onto his lips again. "Yeah, I am. And you know what? It's all because of _you_", he hissed and kept coming closer.

Naruto kind of wanted to back away, but had a feeling it would only make the man lunge at him.

"You make me act like an idiot. Like I have no control over myself", he continued and was now too near for Naruto's liking. It didn't take long for them to be face to face.

"You turn me into something so sick and twisted, it shouldn't even exist", the man hissed not an inch away from the blonde's face. Naruto was taken aback by the sudden burst of words.

"I want to make you suffer. I want to gauge your eyes out. I want to rip your heart out."

By now, Naruto's survival instinct had kicked in. The man's words weren't a joke. He wanted to either run away or shoot him in the face, but wasn't able to move. Gaara came so close, Naruto had to lean against the side of the car behind him. The redhead lifted his hand next to Naruto's face as if to touch him. But he didn't. Instead, after a second of considering, the hand got pressed against the car. Naruto was now pinned between a ridiculously expensive vehicle and Gaara. His pale face was dangerously close to his.

"But I can't. I can't do any of it, because you've got a chokehold of my _fucking_ soul", Gaara said in a surprisingly soft, but bitter tone. Naruto got sucked in by his poisonous green eyes again. He could feel the warmth of the other man's body, so close to his own. Naruto was amazed that despite looking like a walking corpse, he was so hot. Temperature-wise. Naruto cautiously lifted a hand and pressed it against the man's forehead. He was burning up. "You've got a fever", Naruto informed.

Gaara didn't respond, just kept looking deep into his eyes. How exactly the man was even able to stay awake with all his sleep deprivation and a high fever, was beyond Naruto.

"You need to sleep", Naruto told him. Gaara shook his head. Naruto sighed. "Listen. I'm not going anywhere with you if you don't get any sleep."

Gaara shook his head again. He was dead tired. It'd been days since he last slept and even though it didn't always seem that way, he was only human. He needed to sleep. There was no way Naruto would get on the road otherwise. The blonde reached to his left to open the door to the back seat. He then grabbed the other man's shirt collar and led the man to the back door. Naruto seated himself onto the backseat, his feet on the ground.

"I'm gonna allow something really fucking stupid, just so you would sleep", Naruto said and looked upwards to face Gaara. The redhead tilted his head in curiosity.

"I'll sleep next to you on the back seat", Naruto said not really believing his own words. It seemed Gaara was just as shocked. "I'll leave my gun outside. You'll wake up if I move even an inch. Okay?" Naruto suggested.

He felt insane for even considering letting that violent thing sleep next to him, but if he ever wanted to get out of the woods, he had no choice. Gaara didn't answer. Naruto sighed. He then moved to lie down on the back seat. The leather seat was cold. It was cold in general.

"Get in. Let's get this over with", Naruto muttered and waited for something to happen.

Gaara stood still. Naruto grunted.

"Now."

It took a few more seconds of uncertainty, but finally Gaara moved to get inside. He sat onto the seat and pondered witch way to lie down.

"I ain't sleeping with your shoes in my face", Naruto told him. Gaara watched him unsure of what to think of the situation. Naruto was shivering. It was a seriously cold night. He had nothing more than a t-shirt and a light hoodie. "C'mon. Make that fever of yours useful and be my heater", Naruto said.

Gaara still glared with unsure eyes. He then grunted and took off his black jacket. Avoiding eye contact, the man laid it on top of the blonde's shivering figure. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"You're the one with the fever. It'll get worse", Naruto said.

"Nah", Gaara then slowly lowered himself down next to Naruto. The space was narrow, so they ended up facing each other. They stared at one another. It wasn't as much awkward as it was uncomfortable. Two men weren't made to share the backseat of a car. Gaara had a meaningful look in his eyes.

"The gun", he said simply.

"Right", Naruto answered and reached behind him to pull it out.

He then pushed open the door and threw it to the ground. "Happy?" Gaara nodded and then shut the car door. They took the most comfortable positions possible in the narrow space they had. They kept quiet for a while. There was something Naruto really wanted to know.

"Why the hell did you steal a Maybach?"

Gaara smirked. It was a less irritating kind than Naruto had gotten used to.

"Why not?"

Naruto chuckled. "Good point."

It was so damn cold. Summer wasn't far away, but obviously it was way too early to celebrate it. Gaara had a high fever and no jacket, but he showed no sign of being cold. He was inhuman. Naruto was sure of it.

"Whatever it is you want to show me, I hope it's worth this hell", Naruto said as he shivered from the cold. "It is", Gaara assured.

Naruto couldn't believe Gaara wasn't cold. He himself felt deep-frozen. Naruto lifted his cold hand to touch Gaara's forehead once more. It was still hot as hell. The air temperature had gone low enough for their breaths to turn visible. It was possible he'd wake up next to a corpse.

"Take the jacket back", Naruto said.

"I don't need it."

Stubborn as fuck.

"If you die, it's not my fault."

"I won't."

"Fine."

They were quiet again. Naruto watched Gaara struggle to stay awake.

"Sleep. It's fine", Naruto said.

Gaara wanted to protest, but wasn't physically capable to do that anymore. It took approximately 30 seconds for him to fall asleep. For Naruto it took a lot longer. He was too cold to fall into a slumber. The shivering kept him awake. He watched the sleeping man next to him. Even asleep he had a stern, stoic face. He was like a sculpture. Not a mistake on the perfect porcelain skin. His jawline was sharp, like he'd been carved from stone. Cold, cold stone. Naruto wondered if he ever looked peaceful. Did he ever feel peaceful? He didn't come across that way, to say the least. Naruto couldn't help but to ponder what it was like inside his head. It felt strange to be this close to him. Again. Asleep he seemed less dangerous. But Naruto knew that if he moved even an inch in the wrong direction, those hollow pools of green covered by pale eyelids would open up in a flash and he'd probably get strangled. Naruto couldn't let the illusion of calmness affect him. He'd just end up at the morgue if that happened. He had no idea what he was doing there. He must've been out of his mind to agree to the redhead's request. Not two days ago, he'd wanted to rip off the man's head and bury it six feet under. And quite possibly, Gaara had wanted to do the same to him. Naruto couldn't stop himself from wondering why Gaara had come after him for help. It didn't seem like him. The only reason Naruto could come up with, was that the man _really_ didn't want to lose his lawyer.

Naruto tilted his head slightly to see out of the window. The night sky was clear and covered in twinkling stars. They were visible in a way that was impossible in the city. The artificial lights always outshone the stars. Naruto smiled at the view. He'd always loved to watch the night sky. The stars reminded him of all the people who'd become ones themselves. He rarely thought about his parents, but the twinkling sky reminded him of them. As well as many of his friends who'd lost their lives to the ways he'd left behind.

Naruto flinched as something moved beside him. He turned his gaze away from the stars and looked to his left. It seemed the cold had finally gotten to Gaara. The man was still fast asleep, but he'd started shivering like a dying animal. Naruto brushed his forehead. The fever wasn't as bad anymore. Apparently the cold had done its job. Careful not to wake the man up, Naruto lifted the helm of the jacket laid over him and slightly drew himself closer to Gaara. Naruto lowered the jacket so it also covered the redhead. They were only an inch away from touching each other. If Naruto went any further, he'd get pressed against the other one. If he backed away at all, he'd lose the warmth of the jacket. It was kind of difficult to fall asleep while worrying about keeping the exact position he was in. After about ten minutes of trying to fall asleep, Naruto concluded he had to back away, even if it meant he'd be freezing the whole night. He'd moved only an inch, when suddenly Gaara's strong arm got wrapped around him. A sturdy grip held onto the back of his shirt. Naruto checked to see if the man was still asleep. Indeed he was. Naruto had no idea what to do. He decided he'd have to squirm away from the grip. He moved to lift the man's hand away, but before he actually had the chance to do anything, Naruto got pulled closer to his chest. Gaara's breathing was still even, indicating he hadn't woken up. Naruto's breath, on the other hand, hitched. His body was pressed tightly against the redhead's. His lips were nearly attached to the nape of his pale neck. It took a few seconds, but Naruto finally let himself breathe out again. His warm breath hit the cold skin of the other's neck. Gaara moaned in his sleep. The sound had an unexpected effect on Naruto. As it reached his ears, his tense body relaxed like magic and his hand moved to return the grip Gaara had on him. Before he even had the chance to realize what was happening, Naruto had fallen asleep. He wasn't cold anymore.

When Naruto woke up the next day, it was light outside. It wasn't cold anymore. Also, the car was no longer still.

Naruto jolted up. They were on the road again. He had no idea what time it was or where they were. Naruto shook his head a couple of times before moving to the front. After a small struggle, he was riding shotgun again. Naruto felt pissed off.

"What time is it?" he wanted to know.

"2 pm."

"Where are we?"

"Halfway."

Naruto grunted. His back was aching. His head was aching. Sleeping in the back of a Maybach wasn't any more luxurious than it would've been in the back of a Prius.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Naruto asked irritated. Gaara shrugged. Naruto wondered if he knew how they'd slept. For a moment Naruto had thought of it as a dream, but as it'd dawned on him that it was none of the kind, it'd been kind of terrifying. Even more terrifying was the fact that it was the only way he'd been able to sleep. Naruto came to the conclusion it was the warmth of the other one that'd made him doze off.

Something important came to the blonde's mind. He reached out his hand and waited.

"My gun", he said.

"I don't have it."

"Yes, you do."

Gaara hesitated for a moment, but then reached to open the glove compartment and pulled the gun out. With a grunt, he placed it into Naruto's hand. Naruto checked that it was still loaded and then put it away.

"Do we have coffee?" Naruto asked. Gaara handed over a cup. Naruto happily took it. It was still warm. It's funny how small things could make one so satisfied. Naruto took out a pack of cigarettes and opened up the window on his side. Gaara glanced at him.

"You're gonna smoke in a half a million dollar car?" he asked. Naruto snorted. "You s_tole_ a half a million dollar car. I don't think you have a say in the matter", he said and lit a cigarette. Gaara shook his head.

"Gimme one", he then said. Naruto offered one, he took it. The car filled up with smoke.

"How far exactly do you think you're gonna get with this car?" Naruto asked.

"I changed the license plates. Also, I now legally own this car. It's funny how people behave at gunpoint", Gaara said as if he was talking about the weather.

"Then why don't you have the key?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"The moron swallowed it. Thought it would actually change a thing."

Naruto didn't bother with being surprised. But he did realize something.

"You've had a gun this whole time?" he growled. Gaara just smirked.

"Asshole."

Naruto's urge to kick him in the face suddenly increased considerably. Going on a road trip with Gaara was exactly as pleasant as he'd expected. It could also be called 'an unbearable amount of bullshit'. But there were a couple of things that weren't too bad. Naruto had learned new things about Gaara. For example stealing a rich bastard's car with a gun told him Gaara wasn't all that innocent. He'd also learned that sleeping next to him was far more pleasant than needed.

Naruto shook his thoughts away and took one last drag form his smoke before throwing it out the window. He then flipped open the sunblock over his head. There was a mirror inside. He studied his face and was happy to learn that his face wasn't as blue as it'd been a while ago. His neck looked better as well. A faint line was still visible, but it wasn't too bad. His split lower lip was still sore. The wound was quite deep. It would take longer to heal. Naruto turned to look at Gaara. The side of his face was still a deep purple. It wasn't as dark anymore, but still looked painful. It wasn't pretty. Gaara glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye.

"You sure know how to kiss with a fist", he muttered through a smirk.

Naruto turned away. He had a hunch that that particular subject wouldn't lead to anything good. Gaara got the hint and didn't continue discussing it.

"We'll be there in a couple of hours. But we'll have to wait 'till dark", he said instead.

Naruto just nodded.

"Ok."

For some reason the atmosphere wasn't as tense as it'd been before. Perhaps sleeping in each other's arms had something to do with it. Naruto shuddered at the thought of it. He wasn't repulsed by it and that's what made him disgusted. In no way was he supposed to find anything good in the man next to him. But somehow, he just couldn't stay away from him. Why? It made him angry and frustrated. The man was a mystery. That's probably what stopped him from staying away. He was like a moth drawn to the flame. And he would probably get burned.

"I need more coffee", Gaara said startling Naruto awake from his thoughts.

It seemed they'd gotten to a gas station. Gaara had already hopped out of the car. Naruto sighed and decided to follow him. He made his way inside as well and went over to the counter to buy some more caffeine into his system. Before he had the chance to pay for anything, Gaara handed him a cup of coffee. Naruto glanced at him, but took what was offered to him.

"Thanks."

Gaara nodded. They turned around to leave. They'd gotten outside when Gaara's hand suddenly grabbed Naruto's arm, stopping him. Naruto turned to look at him. Gaara nodded in the direction of their stolen vehicle. Naruto turned his gaze to see.

"Shit."

There was a cop car parking right next to the Maybach.

"Shit", Naruto repeated and turned back towards Gaara. He quickly grabbed the man's wrist and placed a pack of cigarettes into his hand. Gaara had a questioning look on his face.

"Just smoke", Naruto said. Gaara did as told. He was now facing away from the car. That was good. Though he probably wouldn't get recognized, it was better to be sure than sorry. He was legally a free man, but if recognized, the cops could get too interested in them. And to make sure they wouldn't get busted driving a stolen vehicle, that was something the blonde very much wanted to avoid.

Naruto was facing Gaara and watched over his shoulder as the cops got out of their car. There were two of them and both stopped to study the jet black Maybach. From the looks on their faces, Naruto dictated they were simply admiring the sweet ride. It was good so far, but if the car had been reported stolen, there was a big chance they'd get in trouble. Time moved slow as fuck, but eventually both cops walked away from the car. Neither of them seemed to be anything else than excited about a car they'd sell their own mother for. The two cops passed Gaara and Naruto and made their way inside through the door they were standing next to. Naruto made sure the officers were gone before sighing in relief and walking towards the car. He took his seat and watched Gaara get in.

"Gimme a smoke", he said to the redhead.

He took the cigarette offered to him and lit up.

"It was a bad fucking idea to steal this car, you know?" Naruto mumbled as Gaara started the engine and drove away from the parking lot.

"Life would be boring if I didn't have bad ideas", Gaara said.

Naruto snorted. "You're a smart guy, but it doesn't seem so at the moment."

Gaara glared at him.

"You're one to talk."

It was Naruto's turn to glare.

"God you're annoying."

"Thank you. So are you."

The next two hours or so, they drove in silence. Naruto was still tired. Despite sleeping nearly twelve hours, the coldness of the night hadn't made it easy. At some point, Naruto dozed off. By the time he woke up, the car had been pulled over. Naruto rubbed his drowsy eyes and glanced around. Gaara wasn't in the car. They were parked on the side of a quiet street. Naruto immediately checked that he still had the gun in his possession. Relieved to know he still had it, Naruto opened up his door and stepped out. His gaze searched for Gaara. The man was a few feet away, walking in his direction.

"Where are we?" Naruto asked when the man reached him.

"On the other side of Land of Fire."

They'd traveled a long way.

"So what now?" Naruto wanted to know.

"Now we wait for darkness", the man told him.

There was no point in asking further questions. They were both leaning against the car. The metallic surface was cold, despite it being an unusually warm day. Perhaps summer was nearer than expected. It would get colder in the evening, though. Naruto knew that and cursed himself for not taking a jacket. It was probable that they would have to sleep in the car again.

"You talk in your sleep", Gaara suddenly spoke, startling the blond.

Naruto turned to look at him.

"Oh."

There wasn't much he could say to that.

"Is Sakura your wife?" the man asked. Naruto tensed up. He didn't like hearing her name on his lips. There was no need for him to know about his life and especially not about the people close to him. But if he'd blurted out things in his sleep, there was no point in hiding it.

"Yeah", he said in a slightly defensive tone. Gaara nodded.

"She opened the door for me. Pretty girl."

The redhead's words made Naruto even tenser. Him talking about his better half felt offensive and…dangerous.

"I don't appreciate you talking about her", Naruto said through gritted teeth. Gaara turned to face him with that provoking smirk of his plastered on his face.

"Why?"

Naruto shot a piercing glare. "You know why."

The smirk stayed, but Gaara didn't push it. Naruto was content enough. The temperature had started to drop. Judging by the lighting, it was around 5 pm. It wouldn't get dark before eight. "Are we just gonna wait for the dark here and freeze to death?" Naruto mumbled.

"No. We've still got a few miles to go. But it's just an hour drive or so", Gaara said.

"Then why are we here?"

"I needed to get on my feet for a change."

Naruto was about to say something, but got cut off as his stomach made a noise. Gaara snorted.

"You hungry?"

Naruto huffed.

"Yeah."

Gaara pushed himself away from the car and walked to the other side.

"Get in", he said before taking the driver's seat. Naruto did as told. Gaara took off and drove along the small road they were on. After a mile or two, he turned right and parked the car. Naruto looked out the window to discover a bar in front of them. Gaara got out and Naruto followed him. They made their way inside the bar and seated themselves at the counter.

"Get something to eat. You're gonna need it", Gaara instructed.

Naruto had no idea what he meant, but ordered food and a beer. He needed some alcohol into his system to survive this trip with Gaara.

"Don't get drunk. I need you sober", Gaara said once Naruto had gotten his drink and chugged half of it in one sitting.

"It takes a lot more than one beer to get me drunk", he grunted.

It didn't take long for him to get food, either. He'd eaten so poorly in the last few days, the first bite was like heaven.

"What exactly are you expecting me to do?" Naruto asked between bites. "You'll see. Patience", Gaara said.

"Trust me, it's taken a considerable amount of patience to be here with you. I have no idea why I'm here or where we're going. If that doesn't take patience, then nothing does", Naruto assured. Gaara's lips twisted into a smirk once again.

"I can't be that bad. If I were, you wouldn't be here."

That was possibly true, but there was no way Naruto would admit to it.

"Bullshit. I'm here because I need to stay alive", he said. Gaara grunted. His face soon fell into a thoughtful expression. "Why aren't you panicking shitless about your situation?" he then asked.

Naruto swallowed a mouthful of food and sighed. This would inevitably lead to a discussion about his past.

"I'm not gonna talk about it with you. Ever", he informed and continued to empty his plate.

Gaara tilted his head. "Why not? We're probably gonna die anyway", he said.

"No", Naruto repeated. He'd gotten done with eating and drank up the rest of his beer. "Let's go", the blonde said and got up.

Gaara followed him outside. They got back into the car and soon were back on the road. It took about an hour before they turned to a small road leading into deep woods. They drove for a mile or so further into the forest before Gaara parked the car.

"Get out, we're here", the redhead said and made his way outside. Naruto did as told and followed Gaara to the back of the car. Gaara opened the trunk. Apart from two huge shovels, it was empty. Gaara picked up both of the shovels and handed one of them to Naruto. Naruto gave him a questioning look, but grabbed the thing when Gaara said nothing. The man closed the trunk and took out a compass. He studied it for a while, then turning around and walking away from the path, into the woods. Naruto had no idea what was going on, but followed the man anyway. They'd walked over thirty minutes when Naruto got frustrated.

"Where the hell are we going?" he asked irritated.

Gaara stopped walking. He glanced around and then took a few more steps to the right. He stood next to a tree that had to be at least 150 feet tall.

"Come'ere", the man told Naruto.

Naruto made his way over to the tree. He watched as Gaara stuck his shovel to the ground and started digging. Naruto seemed confused for a while, but then followed the man's actions. The shovel was heavy as hell and the digging got him sweaty despite the air being cold again. After twenty minutes they'd dug a hole three feet deep. Naruto's shovel was stopped by something solid. A weird crackling noise reached his ears. Naruto looked up to see Gaara. The man nodded, instructing Naruto to keep digging. The blonde did as told. He soon realized what he was digging up. From beneath the dirt and soil emerged a decomposed body. A human corpse. The smell hit him like a slap across the face. He wanted to gag.

"Jesus", he muttered.

This was _not_ what he'd expected. Not at all. The body was pretty much nothing but a pile of bones, but it smelled horrific nonetheless. It didn't take Naruto long to realize who the body had belonged to. This was the body that'd been dragged away from the murder scene. It was the only reason Gaara why would've taken him there. A drop of water hit the blonde's face. It was starting to rain. Naruto was about to throw up, but took a deep breath to keep himself focused. He reached out his hand towards Gaara.

"Gimme you phone", he told the man. Gaara handed him what'd been asked. Naruto made sure the phone's caller ID was hidden and then dialed a number. It didn't take long for the call to get picked up.

"I would like to give an anonymous tip of a corpse dug up from a shallow grave. Please trace the coordinates of this phone call."

With that, Naruto hung up. Rain had started pouring down. He was soaking wet. He turned to face Gaara. There was only one thing on his mind.

"We need to get the fuck away from here."

* * *

><p><strong>There you go, sweeties. Hope you like it. Oh yeah, I just wanted to tell you that I'll probably edit some of the chapters at some point. I won't be changing anything crucial, mainly just the over all layout of the text to make it a bit more pleasing to the eye. I'm not sure when I'll have the time to do it, but it'll be dealt with eventually.<strong>

**Please review, love ya.**


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